From Catwalk To Factory Floor

An exhibition of elegant and beautiful photographs from post-war industrial Britain will be launched by former MP and Secretary of State for Industry Tony Benn at the Science Museum on Tuesday 20 February.

Maurice Broomfield's 'New Look' at Industry: Photographs from Post-War Britain"Å¡ which opens to the public on Wednesday 21 February"Å¡ shows how the photographer created his unique vision of Britain at work in the 1950s and 1960s. Tony Benn"Å¡ an MP for 50 years until his retirement in 2001"Å¡ will speak of his feelings about Broomfield's images"Å¡ taken at a time when he was becoming an established figure in left-wing national politics. Maurice Broomfield"Å¡ whose remarkable work the exhibition celebrates"Å¡ will also be in attendance at the launch - when he will have just turned 91.

Broomfield's work is being displayed at the Science Museum because it charts a time when manufacturing was experiencing a rebirth in Britain after World War Two. The photographer approached industrial photography with the aim of creating a 'New Look' for industry"Å¡ just as Christian Dior had done with his fashion collection 60 years ago in the legendary 1947 season. Broomfield felt industrial photography was outdated and he took influence from cinema and European design movements such as Bauhaus"Å¡ to create simple"Å¡ direct images with a strong sense of form.

He photographed new industries such as nylon production"Å¡ insulation and electronics"Å¡ and other manufacturing industries which were reborn after the war. He wanted to show that Britain could be a match for industrial leaders the US and Germany at that time. The exhibition is made poignant by the fact that many of these industries have now disappeared from Britain"Å¡ and that Britain is now facing a challenge to its manufacturing sector from the booming Asian economies.

All of the images in the exhibition - the first in a series of Science Museum Arts Projects shows for 2007 - are of real workers performing everyday tasks whom Broomfield photographed with great empathy. However"Å¡ he uses the work place as a stage set to create his glamorous vision of Britain. A photograph of electrical production could be the set of a musical; two men checking insulation could just as well be in a sensual embrace with a machine; a woman working on a production line has an almost beatific countenance.

Hannah Redler"š Head of Science Museum Arts Projects"š said: "Maurice Broomfield came from a design background and had worked in fashion"š which gave him a different perspective on industrial photography. This"š allied to his patriotism and his deep humanitarian convictions"š allowed him to create images of artistic beauty which capture the positive aspects of what it meant to be a worker at that time."

Dan Albert"š Exhibition Curator from the Science Museum"š added: "Maurice Broomfield was a commercial photographer"š often working for the companies he was photographing"š but it is a testament to his determination and skills that these images can now be regarded as art." -- www.sciencemuseum.org.uk