Douglas Webb
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Douglas Webb DFM, (12 September 1922 - 8 December 1996) was a British photographer who worked in the film and television industries. He was also a veteran of the Dambusters raid.
Early life
Webb was born in Leytonstone, London. Before the war he worked for Ilford and then as a printer with the London News Agency in Fleet Street.
World War II
During World War II he served with the Royal Air Force as an air gunner with No. 49 Squadron and No. 617 Squadron. Douglas was front gunner with the crew of Avro Lancaster AJ'O' for Orange, piloted by William Townsend, which took part in the Dambusters raid. Webb was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal for his part in the operation.
Career
After the war he rejoined the London News Agency as a staff photographer, until he was offered a contract with the Rank Organisation's Denham Studios as a stills photographer. Webb later moved to Gainsborough Pictures where he worked on his first film Miranda. Webb went on to establish a successful business as a freelance photographer with his own studio in Greek Street, Soho, doing theatrical and film portraits. He first used the notorious Pamela Green, his future partner, as a nude model in 1948. She was only seventeen. He later moved to larger premises in Albany Street near Regents Park. During his career, Webb was involved in the production of photographic stills and projection transparencies for numerous films such as The Killing of Sister George (1968), Perfect Friday (1970) and Krull (1983). His television credits included Special Branch, Van der Valk and The Sweeney.
As the British film industry went into decline he moved to the Isle of Wight in 1986, where he begun to catalogue the photos of Pamela Green taken in the 1960s and '70s. The bulk of their outdoor studies were taken in Cornwall, Melton Constable in Norfolk and the Isle of Wight. In 1993 Douglas and Pamela moved to Yarmouth.
