Photograph by Fred Morley
Delivery After Raid, also popularly known as The London Milkman, is a black and white photograph taken by Fred Morley on 9 October 1940. The image shows a milkman making his delivery along a street with buildings destroyed by German bombers during the Blitz in Holborn, Central London. Firefighters are seen dousing the rubble. Historian Lucy Worsley notes that the famous photo was staged by Morley using his assistant to portray a milkman seemingly unperturbed in the ruins of London. The staged photo accentuates what became known as the "Blitz Spirit", the courage and morale of the British people in spite of the bombings, allowing Morley to bypass wartime censorship and reveal the actual devastation of the city in the background to the wider world, while also promoting positive propaganda. The image is just one of a series of staged photographs used to boost morale during the war, including a photo of a postman working in the ruins, a photo of men browsing books in the ruins of the Holland House Library, and a photo of St Paul's Cathedral after a bombing.
Composition.
The photograph depicts the aftermath of a German bombing of a London street in October 1940 during the Blitz in World War II. An outline of buildings appears in the background, still standing on the left and right, as the bright sky shines down from the top center right to now destroyed buildings. The street is difficult to see due to the rubble and detritus completely filling it. Fires still smolder in the upper left corner, as steam and smoke rise from where the firefighters, shown slightly blurred in the background with their backs to the camera, hold a firehose as they spray down what is left of the now flattened buildings, extinguishing the last of the blaze. Directly to the right of the firefighters, the milkman appears in the foreground wearing a shining, white jacket, carrying a crate of milk bottles in his right hand, and a single bottle of milk in the right pocket of his jacket. The man strides confidently through the rubble with a bold, determined look on his face, an incongruous image in the midst of the widespread destruction. The milkman is sharply in focus, with one of his legs blurred by motion, indicating a slow shutter speed used by the photographer. The arm of the milkman is slightly raised, compositionally aligned with the firehose behind him in the background, as broken structural elements strewn to his lower left, possibly a doorframe, point diagonally in the distance behind him, visually reminding us that this was once a road.
Background.
Fox Photos.
In the early 20th century, the British press was headquartered in the Fleet Street region of Central London, England. In 1926, investor Richard Fox, photographer Reginald Salmon, and journalist Ernest Beaver bought the "Special Press" company and changed the name to "Fox Photos". According to curator Sarah McDonald, Fox Photos became known for providing photography services to the new media of the time, which increasingly relied on visual storytelling and led to a burgeoning demand for the services of press photographers. Fox was also one of the first agencies to use color film, particularly during its coverage of World War II. Fox Photos was known for providing coverage of daily news, transportation, industry, and human interest stories. Highlights of their archival photo collection show a focus on images portraying workers, soldiers, and energy generation. In January 1926, Fred Morley began working for Fox Photos. Fox Photos closed their business in 1999.
The Blitz.
The Battle of Britain began in July 1940, followed by the Blitz, an eight month bombing campaign against the United Kingdom. During this time, London was attacked by the German Luftwaffe for 57 nights, from September 1940 to May 1941, leading to more than 40,000 civilian deaths and millions of homes and buildings damaged or destroyed. Previously, on 26 July 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill directed the Minister of Information (MOI) to control the way the British media covered the air raids, specifying that "photographs showing shattered houses should not be published unless there is something very peculiar about them...it must be clear that the vast majority of people are not at all affected by any single air raid...Pray try to impress this upon the newspaper authorities, and persuade them to help." If the photos were questionable, press agencies often submitted their images to the Press &amp; Censorship Bureau of the MOI for review before publishing. Media arts researcher James McArdle notes that the British government wanted to avoid any kind of public panic and tried to limit the number of photos showing the destruction from the bombs by censoring images captured by press photographers. To date, of the approximately 11,500 photographs taken of the London bombing by the British press, the majority have never been seen by the public and remain in their respective archives.
The photograph.
On October 9, photographer Fred Morley of Fox Photos saw the firefighters and knew he had to document the image. Due to wartime censorship rules, it was unlikely that the British government would allow such a photo to be published, as it would hurt the morale of the country. Censors wanted to prevent the Germans from knowing where the bombs had reached their targets. They also believed that such photos had the potential to contribute to public panic and dismay.​ The only way Morley could get past the censors to document the bombing was by creating "a more palatable fiction".​ Morley borrowed a milkman's uniform and accessories and dressed his assistant in the clothes and had him walk through the scene as he captured the photo. The censors saw the milkman representing the "Blitz Spirit", the strength and resolve of the British people in the face of great suffering and destruction, and allowed newspapers to publish the photo on October 10.​ The photo is often discussed as part of a set of three or more similarly contrived photos from the late 1940 Blitz era. These include several images of mail carriers delivering or picking up mail ("Mail as Usual", September 11), a staged image of insurance adjusters examining the damage of the Holland House library ("Damaged Library", October 23), and a retouched image of an attack on St Paul's Cathedral. ("St Paul's Survives", December 29).
Provenance and exhibitions.
The Hulton Press Library was established in 1948, eventually cataloging and archiving the majority of significant photographs from British press agencies, including those from Fox Photos and the photograph of "Delivery After Raid." Getty Images acquired the Hulton Press Library in the late 1990s. The photograph was subsequently displayed in the "London General" exhibition at the Hulton Getty Picture Gallery in 1999. From July to October 2007, the National Portrait Gallery in London held the "Daily Encounters" exhibition of press photographs from Fleet Street that were taken from the early 1900s to the 1980s. This exhibition popularized the unusual history of the photograph to a wider audience. Previous popular depictions of the image, such as those in "An Independent Eye: A Century of Photographs" (1998), overlooked the complicated backstory of its deliberately staged theme while portraying the photo of the milkman as historically accurate.
Legacy.
American historian David F. Crew believes the image of "Delivery After Raid" is part of a larger set of British photographs taken during World War II that symbolically represents the steadfast resolve of the British people in the face of an incessant and devastating bombing campaign by Nazi Germany. Crew believes these images informed the stoic myth of the Blitz spirit, helping the British people to survive and emerge triumphant in their battle against Germany.
References.
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