Bob Collins worked as a freelance photographer for almost fifty years, initially as an amateur after the Second World War, before turning professional in 1956. His remarkable photographs of London life, from the 1940s to the 1960s, are striking because of their human interest - expressions and gestures of Londoners are captured amidst the breadth of fascinating subjects Collins teased out of the capital city.
Born in East Ham, Collins was given a camera for his seventh birthday, avidly nurturing his passion for photography throughout his life. Mr Collins was called up to fight in the Second World War at the age of 18.
Fighting in Anzio, Italy, he stepped on a land mine which almost destroyed his leg and spent six months recovering in a hospital in Rome. Later he would describe the blast to family members as a 'blessing in disguise'.
After being demobilised from the British Army in 1945 he submitted prints of London street life to magazines.His first published illustrated article came in Amateur Photographer in 1952, combining great wit and enthusiasm.
Continuing in his day job as a watchmaker in Hatton Garden, he flirted with the idea of making it as a professional photographer, eventually taking the leap after making a series of work backstage at the London Palladium, publishing The Palladium Story in 1956. He became a regular contributor to the magazine TV Mirror until 1961
For this magazine and others Collins documented the rise of singers and radio and television performers such as Tony Hancock, Tommy Steele and Shirley Bassey. His work also appeared in Picture Post, Illustrated and Everybody's Magazine. In addition Collins wrote and contributed illustrated articles for photographic magazines.
Although he was best known for portrait photography, his candid snapshots of Londoners going about their everyday life are especially compelling. Writing about shooting Derby Day at Epsom Downs in the late 1950s, Collins wrote: "It wasn't the four-legged animals which commanded appeal but the two-legged ones."