Eric Hosking OBE, Hon FRPS, FBIPP (1909 - 1991) was widely acknowledged as one of the world’s most eminent natural history photographers. His career spanned over sixty years and his work was admired, published and exhibited in numerous countries around the world.

The Society is now delighted to be able to offer for sale, with kind permission of The Eric Hosking Charitable Trust, a selection of Eric’s classic images. These are available from our on-line shop as A4 or A3 unmounted prints.

For many years Eric Hosking travelled the length and breadth of the United Kingdom presenting lectures illustrated with slides of his most impressive pictures. The superb quality of his images, his meticulous care for his subjects and his boundless enthusiasm inspired three generations of young naturalists and photographers to follow in his footsteps. There can be no doubt that his photographs have made a significant contribution to our wider understanding and concern for the living world.

Eric’s interests, however, were not confined simply to natural history photography; they ranged across a wide spectrum of matters ornithological. He was a perceptive and sensitive observer of birdlife and the thousands of hours spent patiently waiting in his hides produced many interesting and valuable observations, which were meticulously recorded in his notebooks. He was always keenly interested in painters and bird art. Some of his most treasured possessions were paintings, which he had gathered together and enjoyed for many years. He was an avid collector of books, and his shelves were a treasure trove of ornithological volumes. Indeed, within his collection there were many items of considerable historical interest in their own right.

The Eric Hosking Charitable Trust was set up to sponsor ornithological research through the media of writing, photography, painting or illustration. It was launched at a major retrospective exhibition of the photographer’s vintage prints at The Wildlife Art Gallery in Lavenham, Suffolk, on April 24th 1993. In addition, a volume of Eric’s black and white photographs with a text specially written by Dr Jim Flegg, and with a foreword by Miriam Rothschild, was published by Harper Collins in autumn of 1993.