Kenneth Macpherson

Bryher gave her address at the time as Villa Kenwin, Chemin de Vallon, 1814 Burier-La-Tour, Vaud, Switzerland.

(During the war years, Bryher used Kenwin as a staging post for the evacuation of refugees from Nazi Germany.)

Kenneth Macpherson (27 March 1902 – 14 June 1971) was a Scottish-born novelist, photographer, critic, and film-maker, the son of Scottish painter John 'Pop' Macpherson and Clara Macpherson, and descended from six generations of artists.

It is only in recent years that Macpherson's contribution to cinematography has come to be recognised with the re-discovery of his work, which, though limited in output, was far ahead of its time, both in subject matter and cinematic technique.

It was the late 1920s, and race, sex and mental illness were decidedly taboo subjects for cinema audiences; cinematography was just a tool for the use of Hollywood moguls in the production of lucrative films for mass entertainment.

The stage was being set, though, for a challenge on this 'phoney' world with new thinking individuals springing up to present alternative ideas.

Film-makers were being influenced by the philosophy of the Frankfurt School, the theories on human behaviour of Sigmund Freud in Vienna and the innovation of Soviet and German 'montage cinema'.

Macpherson would identify with this new thinking and hope to contribute.

A sexual partner, common to both Bryher and Macpherson, was the American poet H.D., who had been a close friend of Bryher since 1921.

They had a lesbian relationship, spending a lot of time together in Riant Chateau, Territet, Switzerland, where Bryher had a house.

Not long after their marriage, Macpherson and Bryher moved to Territet, later joined by Doolittle, who brought along her 9-year-old daughter Perdita.

(Perdita's father was Cecil Gray, the Scottish music critic and composer).

In his work with the Pool Group (1927–1933), which he co-founded with Bryher and H.D., Macpherson also established the influential film journal Close Up.

Little is known of Macpherson's early life, the pre-Pool Group period, although much is made of his post-Pool Group years, which appear to have been colourful.

One commentary goes as far as to disingenuously identify, for interested parties, the source of 'a lurid description of his personal life during his New York years'.

Macpherson's story began in 1927, when he married English writer, Annie Winifred Ellerman, (known as Bryher in the literary world), the daughter of a British shipping magnate.

Bryher's inherited fortune would help to finance Macpherson's projects.

Although Bryher's and Macpherson's marriage lasted for twenty years, for much of the marriage, both Macpherson and Bryher had extra-marital affairs.

Bryher was lesbian but Macpherson was distinctly bi-sexual.

In 1927, together with Bryher and Doolittle, Macpherson co-founded the Pool Group.

Realising that their ambitions would be stifled by British censorship and the social prejudices of the time, the group re-located to Switzerland.

There, they could fully consider sensitive taboo issues and investigate the means of successfully transferring these thoughts onto celluloid.

It was during this period in Switzerland that Macpherson would produce his main work, the film, Borderline.

At the time, however, the film received a lukewarm reception from the critics, and Macpherson would archive the film in a 'bottom drawer', where it would lie dormant for the next 53 years.

It was in 1927, from their base in Territet, that Macpherson, Bryher and Doolittle launched themselves as the Pool Group.

Pool would veer away from the West's commercial model of film production, and produce material which would promote cinematography as an 'art form'.

Their model would be based on the work coming out of Germany, particularly G W Pabst, and coming out of Russia, particularly Sergei Eisenstein.

Their subject matter would be human behaviour, and its many facets, and their task would be representing this behaviour on screen, influenced by the work of Freud.

Also at Territet, Macpherson founded the influential film journal Close Up, dedicated to "independent cinema and cinema from around the world".

The first issue of Close Up, describing itself on the front cover as an "international magazine devoted to film art", appeared in July 1927.

Macpherson was editor, with Bryher as assistant editor, and Doolittle making regular contributions.

In 1928, Doolittle had a sexual relationship with Macpherson, becoming pregnant by him.

The pregnancy was aborted later that year.

In the same year, Macpherson and Bryher formally adopted Perdita, registering her name as Frances Perdita Macpherson.

Macpherson, who was particularly influenced by the Russian film-maker Sergei Eisenstein whom he first met in 1929, "dictated the tone and direction of the publication, contributing articles that defined the role of the director and defended the integrity of cinema and its right to be considered as art".

Macpherson was in a relationship with cabaret singer Jimmie Daniels for most of the 1930s.

Early in their relationship, Bryher commissioned Richmond Barthé to make a bust of Daniels.

In September 1931, Macpherson and Bryher moved to a new home at La Tour-de-Peilz, which they had commissioned Hermann Henselmann to build.

The home, which overlooked Lake Geneva, came to be known as Kenwin, derived from the names, Kenneth and Winifred, and it doubled as a film studio and home.

In 1937, during his relationship with Daniels, Macpherson had a brief affair with Féral Benga.