Background
Gordon Anthony was born James Gordon Dawson Stannus in Wicklow, Ireland on 23 December 1902.
Gordon Anthony was born James Gordon Dawson Stannus in Wicklow, Ireland on 23 December 1902.
Anthony attended the School of the Royal Architectural Association in 1919.
From 1920 to 1932 Anthony was on the managerial staff of Watney Combe Reide, Ltd., in London and for the next twenty years he freelanced as a photographer. Anthony started working in photography in 1926, making images of the students at his sister's ballet school in London. In 1933 he became the portrait photographer to the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford. His photographs helped to make the Royal Ballet known across the world in the 1930s. In 1948, he published the first ever book of colour photography in Great Britain, Studies of Dancers. He also served as the official portrait photographer for the Air Ministry in London, 1943-1945. From 1952 to 1972 Anthony was an antiques dealer in London. A retrospective exhibition of his work, Shadowlands, was held at the National Portrait Gallery in 1988.
Anthony's 1948 book, Studies of Dancers, was the first book of color photographs to be published in England.