David Potts
1926 - 2012
After his training, he started in the commercialphotographic world by joining the studios of Russel Roberts and Laurence LeGuay, an experience which gave him a professional
footing to move to London in 1950.
The next five years were busy with freelance work as a photojournalist for the Observer, Life, Picture Post and other newspapers and magazines.This was the kind of work he liked best, being the master of the moment, capturing the action with the release of the shutter. His assignments took him to Israel and Cyprus but his daily wanderings in and around London provided him with numerous situations and encounters ready to be seized by his lens.
David Potts excelled at recording contemporary life", in its factual reality but also transfering onto the print the emotional charge of the atmosphere of the place or the expression on the face of his subjects, like the enigmatic smile on the lady in "Summer
Exhibition, Royal Academy" or the entertaing shot of the two older spectators in the famous "Henley Regatta".
Back in Sydney in 1955, along with Gordon Andrews, Max Dupain, Kerry Dundas, Hal Missingham and Axel Poignant, David Potts took part in an exhibition of documentary photographs, held at Farmers, and simply titled: "Six Photographers". The aim of those exhibiting was to show another approach to photography, avoiding the technical and pictorial cliches used in fashion and advertising. They presented unstaged and spontaneous pictures, thus recording life as it was.
In 1958 David Potts was commissioned by Sports Illustrated to do a series on the 18 footers during their Saturday races in Sydney Harbour. The result is a spectacular collection of rarely seen photographs which would exhilarate any sailor.
David Potts ran his own studio fro 1960 to 1965 in Sydney. His work has been recognized as one of the best examples of the documentary movement which illustrates so well the photographic world of the 1950's.
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