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Harry Belafonte

1 of 36 portraits of Harry Belafonte

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Harry Belafonte

by Dorothy Wilding
chlorobromide print, 25 February 1954
11 1/8 in. x 9 1/4 in. (281 mm x 236 mm) overall
Given by the photographer's sister, Susan Morton, 1976
Photographs Collection
NPG x4386

Sitterback to top

  • Harry Belafonte (1927-2023), Singer, actor and activist. Sitter in 36 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • Dorothy Wilding (1893-1976), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 2179 portraits, Sitter in 30 portraits.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Edited by Rab MacGibbon and Tanya Bentley, Icons and Identities, 2021, p. 92
  • Pepper, Terence, In Pursuit of Perfection: The Photographs of Dorothy Wilding, 1991 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 5 July 1991 - 29 September 1991), p. 103 Read entry

    The profile pose of Brynner (x4846) wearing a slightly crumpled white linen shirt and holding a cigarette, his bare head shaved, is one of her strongest male portraits. Forty years later it appears timeless yet contemporary, combining both emblematic pose and a natural spontaneity, qualities also evident in her 1954 portraits of the young, brooding singer and actor Harry Belafonte (x4386).

Placesback to top

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1954back to top

Current affairs

Roger Bannister runs the four-minute mile. Bannister was the first man to achieve the 'miracle mile', a feat that was thought by some to be impossible, beating his rival, the Australian John Landy, to the record. Bannister went on to a career as a distinguished neurologist.
Food rationing ends in Britain.

Art and science

J.R.R. Tolkien publishes the first two parts of the Lord of the Rings trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. Tolkien was an Oxford professor of Anglo-Saxon language and literature and drew on his scholarly interests in history, language and mythology to create the fictional land of Middle Earth where the books are set.
Williams Golding publishes, Lord of the Flies.

International

The South East Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) is established in Bangkok. This international defence organisation was established as part of the 'containment' policy of limiting the influence of communism. SEATO was, however, found to be ineffective as the member organisations failed to agree on combined action; it was disbanded in 1977.

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