Alfred GREGORY: Crevasse in Western Cwm

Alfred Gregory is best known as the climber-photographer who documented the first expedition to successfully summit Mount Everest in 1952 by Edmund Hillary and Tenzig Norgay in 1953. Gregory grew up in the seaside tourist town of Blackpool in the north-east of England. Alfred Gregory first saw Mount Everest in 1952 during an expedition led by Eric Shipton. In 1953 he joined as a climbing member of the British expedition led by John Hunt in the first attempt to ascend the mountain. Gregory reached 8500 metres in support of Hillary and Norgay’s successful summit.

After making a name for himself as a photographer with his Everest work, Gregory freelanced for Kodak in the 1950s and 1960s. Returning to live in Blackpool he documented the social life of his home town. In 1996 Gregory relocated to Australia. In addition to a number of his photographs from the Everest expedition, MAPh holds 24 works from the series Blackpool in the 1960s. They record the fashions of the time, and as works of documentary they pre-figure photographers working in this region in the subsequent decades such as Martin Parr, Tom Wood and Ken Grant.