Edith Tudor Hart – Between photography and espionage | Palazzo Pepoli

For the first time in Italy, Ergo Expo presents a major retrospective dedicated to Anglo-Austrian photographer Edith Tudor-Hart (Vienna, 1908 – Brighton, 1973).

Hosted at Palazzo Pepoli, home of the Museum of the History of Bologna, from 24 October 2026 to 28 February 2027 and curated by ONO arte, in collaboration with the FOTOHOF archive in Salzburg, now home to Tudor-Hart’s entire archive, the exhibition offers not only an opportunity to rediscover one of the most brilliant figures in early 20th-century social photography, restoring her to the place she deserves and giving her the prominence and recognition in fine-art photography that she never received during her lifetime, but also to delve into the secrets of her second life as an agent for the Soviet Union.

Edith Tudor-Hart, born Suschitzky, was a leading figure in social documentary photography between the 1930s and 1950s. Through her work, she actively highlighted social injustice, addressing issues such as poverty, integration and women’s rights, while also documenting the living conditions of the working class. She photographed life in the courtyards of Vienna, along the Danube and in the Prater, protests against the rise of Austrian fascism and – after moving to England – miners, workers and fishermen in Wales, the post-war feminist movement and new institutions of progressive education.

Born into a secular Jewish family in Vienna and a committed supporter of communism, her life was marked by political persecution and personal difficulties. Initially trained as a Montessori kindergarten teacher in Vienna and London, where she also practised the profession, in the late 1920s she studied photography and graphic design at the Bauhaus in Dessau, where she developed her objective and socially critical style. In 1933 she was imprisoned for her involvement with the Communist Party and fled the emerging fascist regime of Dollfuß, going into exile in England after marrying British doctor Alexander Tudor Hart at the British Embassy in Vienna so that she could travel to Great Britain as his wife. In London she successfully continued her photographic work, publishing numerous photo reports in left-wing newspapers and magazines, including Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung (AIZ), Kuckuck and Picture Post.

Edith Tudor-Hart is believed to have collaborated with Soviet secret services and intelligence from her teenage years. However, her activities as an agent remained secret throughout her life: while the documents still held by Russia remain inaccessible, recently declassified British records confirm that she played a key role in recruiting members of the famous “Cambridge Five” spy network. Fearing surveillance and exposure, Tudor-Hart destroyed much of her negatives in the 1950s and, due to pressure from the British secret services and for health reasons, ended her career as a photographer. To support herself, she opened a small antiques shop.

For this reason, much of her photographic work that survived the destruction remained largely unknown and was rediscovered only decades after her death, which occurred in Brighton in 1973.

The exhibition, comprising more than 100 photographs, therefore aims to present Tudor-Hart’s outstanding photographic work through five sections – ranging from social poverty and the political events of her time, to observations of everyday life, images of workers and children as protagonists of society – before also focusing on her activity as a Soviet agent and on the social, cultural and political motivations that drove her to act in secret in pursuit of a mission begun at a young age. The five sections of the exhibition do not follow a chronological path, but instead focus on recurring themes in Tudor-Hart’s work.

The exhibition is further enriched by an extensive documentary section, featuring not only the magazines in which her work was published, but also personal documents, private papers and British intelligence surveillance records, retracing the fascinating biography of the agent with a camera.

In collaboration with: Fondazione Bologna Welcome, Department of Culture of the Municipality of Bologna and Fondazione Carisbo
With the support of: Card Cultura
Under the patronage of the Municipality of Bologna, FAF – International Research Centre, Austrian Cultural Forum in Milan.
The exhibition is also made possible with the support of BCC Felsinea.

Cover image: Edith Tudor-Hart © Suschitzky Estate courtesy Fotohof