Walter Joseph

Walter Joseph (1922–2003) was a semi-professional photographer, born in Germany but forced to flee to England in 1939, where he remained for the rest of his life. His images of postwar London went unrecognised until 2011 when knowledge of his work reached the British Library’s curator of visual arts, John Falconer. Though Joseph had always been doubtful of his ability, his stepdaughter had been eager to bring his work into the public eye for some time, and through a friend Falconer found out that she was still in possession of a collection of Joseph's negatives. Of the eighty surviving images, thirty were displayed for the first time in an exhibition at London's British Library between July and September 2011 as part of the London Street Photography Festival.

Personal life Walter Felix Abraham Joseph was born in Darmstadt, Germany in 1922 to an Orthodox Jewish couple. In 1939, he was forced to flee Germany, followed closely by his twin brothers, and was interned in Mooragh Internment Camp in Ramsey on the Isle of Man for the interim of the Second World War. He ended up settling in London, where he worked in the photographic laboratories of a newspaper while also avidly pursuing his own photography at a semi-professional level. Since the festival, Joseph's family has made a limited number of his prints available for purchase by the general public.

Exhibition of Joseph's work 2011: British Library, London