Born in Manchester in 1930, Robertson grew up in a world that shocked her with the lack of careers for women. “There were only three jobs considered by society as appropriate,” she said. “Teaching, secretarial work or nursing - just to fill in until you got your man.”
Thankfully, her father's role as picture editor of renowned photography magazine Picture Post saw him buy her a camera in 1949 to encourage her keen interest in photography. She still felt obliged, however, to submit her first photos to the magazine under a male pseudonym (Dick Muir).
Robertson became a regular contributor to Picture Post under her own name, and shot a series of groundbreaking photo series that documented often unseen aspects of life in 1950s Britain with a gentle touch that also came with sharp insight. In particular, she depicted the lives of working class women – most famously in the 1954 series Mother’s Day Off, which recorded a day-trip to Margate by a group of women she had befriended in a London pub. The series was so well-received that she was later commissioned by Life magazine to reshoot a version featuring women from another south London pub.
In 1955, meanwhile, Robertson published a pioneering series on childbirth, including images of a young woman giving birth that were considered graphically sensational at the time. Other notable photo essays including Sheep Shearing in Wales (1951) and Tate Gallery (1952).
As well as an acute eye for the lives of working class people, Robertson was also a proud proto-feminist years before the term existed. “I took any opportunity to work on stories that allowed me to meet other women,” she revealed.
The University of Brighton made Robertson an Honorary Doctor of Letters in 1995, and she received an OBE for services to photography in 1999. In 2002, the university's Aldrich Foundation supported a retrospective of her work and the publication of her book A Sympathetic Eye.
She remained a great supporter of the university into later years, including attending its Graduate Art Show every year well into her 80s. Some of her work can be seen in the permanent collection at the university's Aldrich Foundation.