Israëlis Bidermanas (1911 – 1980), who worked under the name of Izis, was a Lithuanian-Jewish photographer who worked in France and is best known for his photographs of French circuses and of Paris.
This truly wonderful little book has absolutely nothing to
do with Paris or French circuses… well nearly nothing. It has everything to do with the coronation of
Queen Elizabeth II in London… which is not that far from Paris and was a bit of
a circus at the time. The photographs
mainly look at the celebrations and the hoopla that surrounded the celebrations
with only a few snaps of Liz. It is the
Queen’s People that feature in this collection of photographs and for a non
royalist like myself, there is a certain compelling sadness about the whole thing... or maybe it's an alien world that over time has grown so distant that i can't seem to fully understand other than as a sadness.
I’m not au fait with the work of Izis, but after seeing this book I wouldn’t hesitate in picking up anything else I should find with his name on it. He did have an eye for great images and despite my having no interest in the coronation and only marginal interest in 1950s London (Izis possibly felt the same way), I find these images to be incredibly beautiful and definitely of interest.
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