Elisabeth Buchmeyer-Lewis was born in Germany in 1935, where she received her initial education. In the mid-1950s, she immigrated to England, UK where she completed courses in drawing, printmaking, crafts, and photography, and later worked as a lecturer. She quickly established herself as a photographer and photojournalist, documenting various aspects of social life in Britain during the 1960s and '70s.
Photographer and photojournalist Elisabeth Buchmeyer-Lewis was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1935. In the early 1950s, she began a Bauhaus foundation course at the Werkkunstschule in Dortmunder. During a brief visit to England in the mid-1950s, she pursued studies in drawing and printmaking at the Regents Street Polytechnic, London (now University of Westminster) where she was mentored by the constructivist Anthony Hill, prior to attending the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London where she studied under the well-known writer and artist Mervyn Peake. After briefly living in Hamburg, Buchmeyer-Lewis returned to London in 1959 and enrolled in a Photography Diploma degree at the London College of Printing (LCP, now the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London) and then worked as a part-time lecturer at the same institution. Throughout the 1980s, she pursued a part-time Postgraduate Diploma in German studies via the Open University at Ealing College, London (now the University of West London). Buchmeyer-Lewis also lectured at the John Cass School of Art (now the School of Art, Architecture and Design, London Metropolitan University) at Guildford and at Farnham (now West Surrey College of Art & Design). During this period, art and design institutions in the UK underwent a social and cultural reinvention. Buchmeyer-Lewis readily seized the chance to start a fresh career, seeking autonomy and liberation. She soon made a name for herself as a contemporary photographer and became known for capturing various aspects of social life in Britain during the 1960s and '70s. Although she spent the remainder of her life in the UK, Buchmeyer-Lewis nevertheless remained connected with Germany, through travel, projects, and written works.
Buchmeyer-Lewis worked as a freelance commercial photographer in Fleet Street (then the home of English newspaper publishing)and had a studio in London Blackfriars which she shared with three photographers: Felicia Cronin (design and architecture photographer), Roy Dickens (a photographer who worked for the magazine Paris March), and Penelope ‘Penny’ Anne Tweedie (an established photojournalist). Buchmeyer-Lewis’ photography is a testament to a successful career. Her output embraces a wide range of interests and subject matters, including families, artists, recreational and leisure activities, rock stars, and the professional lives of women. Moreover, she broke gender expectations by excelling as a sports car photographer and working with the, now Italian-owned, British car manufacturer, Morgan Motor Company and Jensen Motors. Her photographs of live concerts in London are also particularly notable. Throughout the 1970s, she took photos of rock stars, such as the band, Led Zeppelin and Ian Dury, as welll as African jazz musicians who played at the renowned 100 Club and Base Clef venues. In the later stages of her career, Buchmeyer-Lewis contributed both text and photographs to publications, including The Daily Telegraph, 19 Magazine, House Beautiful, Small Cars, Nova (a British glossy magazine recognised for politically radical writing aimed at intellectual women and covering taboo topics), and the now-iconic second-wave British feminist magazine, Spare Rib.
In 2004, Buchmeyer-Lewis moved to St-Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex where she still engaged with photography and writing, alongside playing chess. In one of her final projects, she revisited and captured memories of her childhood in Germany in the form of photomontages and a limited-edition publication titled Elisabeth with an ‘S’. She often showcased her work in exhibitions and enjoyed a vibrant social life, even after her Parkinson’s disease diagnosis in 2013. Elisabeth Buchmeyer-Lewis died in St-Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, England in 2018. In 2022, the executors of the Buchmeyer-Lewis estate donated her archive to the museum, Hundred Heroines, located in Gloucester, the sole UK charity focused on documenting and promoting women in photography. Hundred Heroines is now the sole custodian of her work in the UK public domain and is working towards its increased display and public access. The archive, covering a photographic career of half a century, is a unique collection that offers insights into a post-war era marked by hope and swift transformations, as well as providing a view into a woman’s experience of the period, alongside informed observations on design, business, leisure and culture. On donation, the archive consisted of roughly 36 vegetable boxes filled with numerous contact sheets, negatives, papers, photos, prints, tear-sheet, transparencies, and various media items. Some of the works are now exhibited in a ‘pod’, designed to resemble a 1970s living room, while an additional pod explores issues of art and activism, where the audience is invited to shape the space with their own political slogans and protests.