Anthony Kersting

Kersting was born in 37 Frewin Road in Wandsworth, South London, and studied at Dulwich College, where he developed an interest in photography.

After leaving Dulwich he worked at the Sloane Square branch of Lloyds Bank.{{cite news |title=Anthony Kersting: architectural photographer |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/anthony-kersting-architectural-photographer-7c0znzlvxd3 |access-date=25 September 2019 |work=The Times |publisher=Times Newspapers Limited |date=20 September 2008}} In 1936 the publication in newspapers of his photographs depicting the new Peter Jones department store influenced a change in career. In 1939 he volunteered for the Royal Air Force and, in 1941, was posted to Egypt. After the war Kersting continued to work as a freelance architectural photographer, illustrating books for Batsford, Nikolaus Pevsner's Guides, Arthur Mee's King’s England series, Encyclopedia Britannica as well as working for Country Life and for the National Trust. In 1947, Kersting was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and, in 1999, an exhibition of his photographs was held at the Wandsworth Museum.

Kersting died in 2008 at the age of 91.

File:Anthony Kersting ledger Courtauld institute of Art.jpg

The complete archive of Kersting's black and white prints, glass and film negatives, and hand-written ledgers{{Cite web|url=http://blog.courtauld.ac.uk/digitalmedia/2018/01/10/the-illegible-kersting/|title=Lorraine Stoker: The Illegible Kersting|date=2018-01-10|website=Digital Media|access-date=2020-04-20}} is now held in the Conway Library,{{Cite journal|last=Bilson|first=Tom|date=2020|title=The Courtauld's Witt and Conway Photographic Libraries: Two approaches to digitisation|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/art-libraries-journal/article/courtaulds-witt-and-conway-photographic-libraries-two-approaches-to-digitisation/3C71D74E1A97CE309A86E34192A519FF|journal=Art Libraries Journal|language=en|volume=45|issue=1|pages=35–42|doi=10.1017/alj.2019.38|s2cid=213834389|issn=0307-4722|url-access=subscription}} the architectural photography collection of the Courtauld Institute of Art, an independent college of the University of London.{{Cite web|date=2019-12-30|title=Digitizing the work (and secrets) of this mysterious photographer|url=https://wired.me/culture/photographer-anthony-kersting-digitized-middle-east/|access-date=2020-11-05|website=WIRED Middle East|language=en-GB}}{{Cite web|url=http://blog.courtauld.ac.uk/digitalmedia/2019/09/20/mary-shelton-hornsby-the-five-main-tasks-behind-the-project/|title=Mary Shelton Hornsby: the Five Main Tasks Behind the Project|date=2019-09-20|website=Digital Media|access-date=2020-04-20}}{{Cite web|url=http://blog.courtauld.ac.uk/digitalmedia/2017/07/10/beautiful-damaged-negatives/|title=Sharing and Caring. Beautiful Damaged Negatives.|date=2017-07-10|website=Digital Media|access-date=2020-04-20}}

Thousands of photographic prints and negatives are being digitised and will be available in the public domain.{{Cite web |last=The Courtauld |first= |title=Kersting Archive |url=https://photocollections.courtauld.ac.uk/menu-item1/kersting-archive |access-date=2025-05-01 |website=Courtauld |language=en}}

Kersting's work includes photographs of:

• People and places around the Middle East, including: sites since destroyed by Daesh; Yazidi people in Iraq; Palmyra, Syria; the Hagia Sophia{{Cite web|url=http://blog.courtauld.ac.uk/digitalmedia/2020/02/28/mary-shelton-hornsby-kersting/|title=Mary Shelton Hornsby: Anthony Kersting's Hagia Sophia – Looking Through His Lens|date=2020-02-28|website=Digital Media|access-date=2020-04-20}}
• Religious sites and street scenes in Nepal{{Cite web|url=http://blog.courtauld.ac.uk/digitalmedia/2019/07/12/samuel-cheney-meeting-the-photographers-gaze/|title=Samuel Cheney: Meeting the Photographer's Gaze – Absence and Presence in Anthony Kersting's Images of Nepal|date=2019-07-12|website=Digital Media|access-date=2020-04-20}}
• Country estates across the UK, including Duncombe Park,{{Cite web|url=http://blog.courtauld.ac.uk/digitalmedia/2019/06/18/irma-delmonte-af-kersting-and-the-picturesque/|title=Irma Delmonte: AF Kersting and The Picturesque|date=2019-06-18|website=Digital Media|access-date=2020-04-20}} and Castle Howard{{Cite web|last=Ramsey|first=John|date=2020|title="Castle Howard"|url=http://blog.courtauld.ac.uk/digitalmedia/2020/08/07/john-ramsey-castle-howard/|access-date=2020-08-12|website=Digital Media – The Courtauld Connects' Digitisation Project Blog}}

A talk entitled "A Possible Life of Anthony Kersting" was given by his biographer, Tom Bilson, at Dulwich College on 20 June 2018 as part of the 11th GE Moore Lecture Series.{{Cite web|url=https://www.dulwich.org.uk/senior-school/news/news/~board/senior-17-18/post/ge-moore-lecture-anthony-kersting-oa|title=GE Moore Lecture: Anthony Kersting OA|last=Tom|first=Bilson|date=20 June 2018|website=Dulwich College}}

Between June - November 2020, the inaugural Project Space exhibition at the Courtauld, "Kurdistan in the 1940s", included 21 of Kersting's photographs.{{Cite web |title=Kurdistan in the 1940s |url=https://courtauld.ac.uk/whats-on/kurdistan-in-the-1940s/ |access-date=2024-10-03 |website=The Courtauld |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Simpson |first=Veronica |title=The Courtauld Institute refurbishment – review: ‘A bit of an epiphany’ |url=https://www.studiointernational.com/courtauld-institute-london-refurbishment-review-witherford-watson-mann-architects#:~:text=Black-and-white%20images%20taken,ancient%20architecture%20he%20photographed%20has |access-date=2024-10-03 |website=www.studiointernational.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Earle |first=Laurence |date=2022-02-23 |title=This week: Anthony Kersting {{!}} The Past |url=https://the-past.com/welcome/this-week-anthony-kersting/ |access-date=2024-10-03 |website=the-past.com |language=en-GB}}

• The Architecture of Medieval Britain, Colin Platt, with photographs by Anthony Kersting. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1990.
• Architecture in Britain, 1530 to 1830, John Summerson ; with colour photography by A. F. Kersting. New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1993. British Library General Reference Collection YC.1995.b.1549.
• Cirencester. A series of illustrations. Photographs by A. F. Kersting, etc. London; New York: B. T. Batsford, 1951. British Library General Reference Collection 010368.t.37.
• Prospect of London. Photographs by A. F. Kersting. Introduction by Anthony Thorne. London: B. T. Batsford, 1965. British Library General Reference Collection X.802/244.
• Portrait of Westminster. A selection of photographs by A. F. Kersting with text by L. C. Spaull. London; Amsterdam: B. T. Batsford, 1964. British Library General Reference Collection X.802/48.
• English Country Houses in Colour. A collection of colour photographs by A. F. Kersting. With an introductory text and notes on the illustrations by R. Dutton. London; printed in the Netherlands : B. T. Batsford, 1958. British Library General Reference Collection 010352.i.53.
• Dulwich 400. The First Four Hundred Years 1619–2019. Edited by Jan Piggott and Nick Black. London: Order of the Governors of Dulwich College, 2019: 90, 101, 107, 170, 185.

{{reflist}}

• [http://courtauld.ac.uk/study/resources/image-libraries/conway-library Kersting Archive]. Conway Library, Courtauld Institute of Art, London

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Category:1916 births

Category:2008 deaths

Category:20th-century British photographers

Category:People from the London Borough of Wandsworth

Category:British architectural photographers

Category:People educated at Dulwich College

Category:Royal Air Force personnel of World War II

Category:Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society

Category:Photographers from London