Susan Elizabeth Davies OBE HonFRPS (née Adey; 14 April 1933 – 18 April 2020) was the founder of The Photographers’ Gallery in 1971, Britain’s first independent gallery of photography, which she directed until 1991.
Table of Contents
- 1 Early life
- 2 Death
- 2.1 Rock Follies Of 77 - Julie Covington, Sue Jones-Davies, Charlotte Cornwell, Rula Lenska LP
- 2.2 Ok
- 2.3 Ond Pwy A All Ddal
- 2.4 Fe Ddaw A Bwyd I'W Braidd
- 2.5 Mor Hyfryd O Hardd
- 2.6 Between the Stops: The View of My Life from the Top of the Number 12 Bus: the long-awaited memoir from the star of QI and The Great British Bake Off
- 2.7 Radio On [DVD] [1979]
- 2.8 Implementing Key Account Management: Designing Customer-Centric Processes for Mutual Growth
- 2.9 Interference: A Novel (Semiosis Duology, Book 2)
- 2.10 Puffs Plus Lotion Facial Tissues, 10 Cubes, 52 Tissues Per Box (520 Tissues Total)
Early life
Davies was born in Abadan, Iran, on 14 April 1933 where her daddy Stanworth Adey was functioning as an engineer at the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, and the family innovative moved to New York. Her mother was Joan (née Charlesworth). They returned to the U.K. when she was 14 and she went to assistant professor in Kent and London past training as a secretary. In 1954, at the age of 21, she married jazz musician John R.T. Davies (1927–2004), also a hermetic restorer of to the lead jazz recordings. The couple had three children, Joanna, Jessica and Stephanie. (Stephanie, the youngest, died from cancer in 1988.)
Davies worked on the Municipal Journal and then started a part-time job at the Artists Placement Group in London back taking a job at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in 1968 where she was exhibitions secretary to Roland Penrose, the ICA’s co-founder. Her fascination in photography was aroused by the presence there of Bill Jay who was using the venue for his Photo Study Centre seminars. At the guidance of Julie Lawson, Penrose’s personal assistant, Davis installed the ICA’s Spectrum exhibition (3 April-11 May 1969) a large intervention exhibition from Stern magazine upon the subject ‘Woman’. A parallel show included British artists Dorothy Bohm, Tony Ray-Jones, Don McCullin, and Italian Enzo Ragazzini, and it was the British photographers who were along with those to recommend Davies right of entry a dedicated photography gallery.
Death
Davies died in Hereford, on 18 April 2020, four days after her 87th birthday, and in the year since the 50th anniversary of The Photographers’ Gallery.
Last update 2021-08-06