Albert William Thomas Hardy[1] (19 May 1913 – 3 July 1995)[2] was an English documentary and press photographer known for his work published in the Picture Post magazine between 1941 and 1957.

Hardy's photographer colleagues included Felix H. Man (aka Hans Baumann), John Chillingworth,[11] Thurston Hopkins, Kurt Hutton, Leonard McCombe, Francis Reiss, Humphrey Spender, Grace Robertson and Bill Brandt, who went out with the writers on stories together, working as colleagues, not competitors.

It succumbed to the rise of television and falling circulation, and its increasingly unpopular identification with Labour's 'New Britain' and 'Fair Shares for All'; the party being defeated in the 1951 election.

[16] Three of Hardy's photos were used in Edward Steichen's famous The Family of Man exhibition and book; two were taken in Burma, including one of a monk at his desk in deep thought.

According to Hardy, the man in that portrait was a Canadian recently released from prison who had just spent a night with the prostitute in the photographer's image.

[18][19] Just before Picture Post closed, Hardy took 15 photos of the Queen's entrance at the Paris Opera on 8 April 1957, which were assembled as a photo-montage by the magazine's technicians.

Much of the material relating to his career has also been compiled into the Bert Hardy archive now held by the Journalism School at the University of Cardiff.

[22] Reporting on the exhibition, Big Issue commented that Hardy had "captured a side of Britain lost to time".