Anita Brookner's 1982 Office Portraits Revisited
Ben Campbell examines a series of previously unpublished photographs of novelist Anita Brookner, taken by his father for the London Review of Books in her
In 1982, photographer Peter Campbell took a series of portraits of novelist Anita Brookner for the London Review of Books. One image was used on the magazine's cover that May, coinciding with a review of her new novel, Providence.
Ben Campbell, writing for the London Review of Books, has revisited these contact sheets. He identifies the location as Brookner's office at the Courtauld Institute of Art, noting its unexpectedly shabby decor for such a prestigious institution. The room featured bare lining paper peeling from the wall, a sketch pinned up, and mismatched desks stained with mug rings.
The Setting and the Subject
The photographs reveal details of academic life in the early 1980s. An antique Royal No. 10 typewriter, manufactured before 1940, sits on a desk with a page in its roller, confirming the space as her own. An electric heater suggests the radiator was insufficient against drafts. Campbell speculates his father brought the tulips visible in some frames as a prop, a common technique for portrait photographers.
He notes that the pictures where Brookner is backlit by the window are less successful technically. However, they still document the environment. His favourite image is the one at the top right of the contact sheet, which he describes as "nice of Brookner" and having more compositional interest, despite the accidental inclusion of the photographer's camera bag in the corner.
The Photographer's Other Subjects
Campbell suggests this assignment likely came about because the London Review of Books' regular portrait photographers were unavailable. He recalls his father only did a few other cover portraits, including sessions with Ian McEwan and Ahdaf Soueif, whose negatives are now lost. A sitting with V.S. Pritchett at home did not yield a usable image for the publication, though the photographs show the subject in cheerful spirits.
The Chosen Image and Its Later Use
From the entire set, Campbell states the portrait selected for the 1982 magazine cover was "very clearly the best." That same photograph has since been used on the cover of Hermione Lee's biography of Brookner. Campbell offers a critique of both the UK and US editions of Lee's book. He argues the US jacket design obscures the tulips with text, breaking the composition, while the UK version unnecessarily reduces the image's prominence by shifting it to the side.
The photographs provide a candid glimpse of the author at work, surrounded not by grand libraries but by the functional, worn-in furniture of a university office.
