Stefan Tyszko: Photographer 0n the 1969 August Bank Holiday, a Saab swerved across a notorious blackspot on the A131 near Halstead on the Essex-Sussex border and crashed into a lorry. Its three occupants and a dog, which had been sitting on the back seat, were killed instantly. The tragedy received extensive press coverage, not least for the terrible loss of three young lives (the oldest was just 25), but also because one of the passengers was Lady Catherine Pakenham, youngest daughter of the Earl and Countess of Longford. It cast an appalling shadow over what otherwise would have been a glittering time for the family. Six of its members had books published that year, including the much acclaimed biography Mary Queen of Scots by Lady Antonia Fraser, Catherine's older sister. Also in the car were Gina Richardson, a colleague of Catherine's from The Daily Telegraph, where they were both researchers, and the driver, their friend, photographer Stefan Tyszko. The dog belonged to him and was called Turnip. Despite Tyszko's young age (he was 24), he was already marked out by Fleet Street as a skilled and fearless photojournalist. The Photography Yearbook (1970) ran a piece on him: "He has great talent as a photographer and the ingenuity, persistence, courage and determination that surely qualify him for admission into the select ranks of the world's top photojournalists." in a hastily put together addendum, it was noted that, as the collection went to press, "news came that Tyszko, who in his short life had seen and photographed so much sudden death, was himself dead. Words fail us."

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Portrait of the artist as a young man

In this knowing self portrait of a 22 year old Stefan Tyszko, we can see him setting this visual manifesto,

Coltrane, Miles Davis, Nietzsche, Desert Boots, String tie, his saxophone, camera case,

Henry Moore inspired sculpture from art school (London School Of Film Technique),

so very Jazz, yet looking forward though the rapidly evolving and dynamic London of

the 1960's.

 

 

A selection of photographs here

 

 

 

Space Hopper 1668. Holland Park (shoot for The daily Express)

A print from a shoot featuring Stefan's younger brother Simon Tyszko, in which we see Simon 'Modelling' the very first Space Hopper in Europe, for a centre spread in the broadsheet Daily Express.

This took place in Holland Park Circa 1967, during one of  the long weekends which utterly turned his younger brother's head, by introducing him to a fast paced world of high culture and glamour, utterly unknown in the Essex suburbs at the very eastern end of the Central line, where they were both bought up.

 

 

A selection of photographs here