Austrian born Edith Tudor-Hart (1908 – 1973) was a photographer, Communist-sympathiser and spy for the Soviet Union, who used photography as a tool to communicate her political ideas.

She studied photography at the Bauhaus and fled Vienna in 1933 to escape persecution for Communist activities and her Jewish background.

Tudor-Hart’s exhibition takes place in the Archive Gallery alongside Mishka Henner’s exhibition, and is culled from Open Eye’s extraordinary holding of Tudor-Hart’s images in its permanent Archive. The exhibition focuses on several key periods in Tudor-Hart’s practice: Aerial and street-view scenes document political upheaval in Vienna prior to Tudor-Hart’s departure for England; the industrial landscapes and working life of Rhondda Valley’s coal mining community in South Wales; and the care and education of disabled children at the Fountain Hospital in London.

The exhibition encapsulates the social and political concerns at the centre of Tudor-Hart’s practice, playing tribute to an incredible and almost forgotten photographer whose work warrants serious reflection.

Scottish National Galleries are currently presenting In The Shadow of Tyranny, a major exhibition highlighting the work of Edith Tudor-Hart, until 26 March 2013.