Nigel Graeme Henderson
(1 April 1917 – 15 May 1985) was an English documentary artist, and photographer.
Life
He was born on 1 April 1917 to Kenneth Henderson and Winifred Ellen Henderson (née Lester). Henderson's parents divorced when he was young. His mother, Winifred "Wyn", creatively inspired him to pursue a career in art. At the beginning of her career Wyn managed The Hours Press for Nancy Cunard. She decided to quit after a heated argument with Cunard. Wyn returned to London to live in the heart of Bloomsbury, in Gordon Square. Nigel opted to live with his mother instead of his father's ordinary family. In 1938, Wyn found a gig managing the Guggenheim Jeune for Peggy Guggenheim; a famous collector of modern art. Nigel studied biology at Chelsea Polytechnic in London from 1935–1936. He then worked as an assistant to Helmut Ruhemann from 1936–1939. In the late 1930s Henderson developed paintings inspired by Yves Tanguy. Through his mother's ties, Henderson met leading artists of the avant-garde such as Max Ernst and Marcel Duchamp. In 1938, Henderson exhibited two collages at the Guggenheim Jeune alongside artists such as Ernst, Braque, Picasso, Schwitters and Gris. Henderson put his passion for art aside to join the war effort as a pilot in Coastal Command. In 1943 he married (Karin) Judith Stephen (1918 - 1972); an anthropologist who introduced him to life on working class streets (daughter of psychoanalysts Adrian Stephen and Karin Costelloe and niece of writer Virginia Woolf). They had four children: Clement Drusilla (1944), Justin (1946), Edward Stephen (1954) and Stephen Nigel (1956). His wife's sister Ann was married to biochemist Richard Laurence Millington Synge. During this period Henderson took various photographs of street life and began to compile documentaries. He also continued to experiment with collages and the physicality of photography.
After his World War Two venture he studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. At Slade he befriended Eduardo Paolozzi and William Turnbull. He and Paolozzi travelled to Paris and met other artists such as Brancusi, Léger, Giacometti, and Braque. After leaving Slade Henderson fell back in love with photography. While living in Bethnal Green between 1949–1952, he took numerous documentary photographs of the area. He achieved abnormal effects by using various techniques such as altering negatives and placing images on light-sensitive paper to create Photograms.
