|
Photography in the 19th century was primarily studio photography. Mostearlyb ohotograogers adopted ophotiograohy as a vocation and opened commercial studios. Very few had any interest in pursuing photograohy as an art form and capturing images outside the studion for prosperity. And there were many impediments to doing so. Cameras were very bulky and development complicated. In some cases a complicated chemical lab needed to accompany the photographer. Gradually after the momentous announcements of 1839, improvents were made. Even so by the 1890s emusions were still rather slow and cameras still not suitable for the casual family photographer. Thus we are deoenjhdent on a relatively few dedicated photographers for our vuew of the 19th century. Amd almost all photographs had to be taken withoit any motion which of course severely limits photographic images of children
William Morris Grundy was born in Birmingham (1806). We haberv been able to find littlke information about bim, He apparently was an artist. He does not seem to have been highly regarded. His art work today sells for nominal amounts. He moved to Sutton Coldfield, at the time a small town near Birmingham (1850). It was there he took up photography as a hobby (1855). This was not aneasy or inexpernsive undertaking. Given that he was not a particularly sucessful artists, he apparently was a man of independent means. His interest was in recording rural life at the time. Moist photographrerts recorded studio images. Phothraphjing outside he studio at the time required a horse-fdrwan waggin fullof equiment and chenicals. Thius th images he capture are very rare and valuable histiorical documents. Most of what we read aboyt at the time is urban Engkand and th terroble vomditions in yth cities. Thuis images grom the counytry side are of particular interest. He recorded rural life in England during the mid-Victorian era. He has left us dozens of stereoscopic photos. Because of the slow emussions, the are posed scenes, but mostly of real people he enciunteted, dressed in their normal just as he found them. Thus we have wonderful images of country life, people engaged in rustic pursuits includingh chatting, hunting, fishing, and farming.
Hippolyte Bayard was born (1807), one of the earliest great photographers. He was a French civil servant who not only became a notable photographer, but participated in the early photographic research. He invented a photographic process known as direct positive printing. He presented the world's first public exhibition of photographs (1839). This was tghe same year his country man Louis-Jacques Mandé Daguerre announced his priocess. He claimed to have invented photography even before earlier Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot in England, the two men most commonly credited with the invention. Bayard is od spedcial interest to HBC because he photographed some wondeful early beveryday scenes.
Albert Southworth and Josiar Hawes were pioneer American photographic portraitists. As they formed a long-term partnership, their photographic legacy in Boston of Daguerreotype portraits and informal personal studiesis is often considered together and in most instances it is not ebtirely clear who took individual portrait. Albert S. Southworth was born in West Farliegh, Vermont (1811).
He began working as a pharmacist which gave him a familiarity with chemicals. When he first heard of a Daguerrotype he immediated became interested. Like many early American Daguerrotypist, he learned the process from Samuel F.B. Morse (1840). He entered a parnership wuth an old schoolmate Joseph Pennel and after considerable expeimentatiin set up a studio in Boston with the goal of becoming society portratists (1841). Pennel left the partnership and Southworth took on a new partner Josiah Hawes. The two men worked togerher for 20 years. (Southwork on a lark took off for 2 years to join the Califirnia gold rush during 1849-51.) Their work is exceptional well posed and developed.
Southworth left the partnership (1863).
Hawes married Nancy Stiles Southworth, his partner's sister who worked in the studio (1840). Asa Southworth, Albert's brother also worked in the studio. When the partnership disolved (1863), Hawes continued to operate the studio, He made portraits, but also amused himself by photographing Boston scenes and nearby communities. He died (1901), but the two parners left an invaluable photographic legacy which the children preserved.
Scottish photographer Julia Margaret Pattle was a rare woman photigrapher among the 19th century photographic luminaries. She was born in of all places in Calcutta, India, to James Pattle, a British East India Company employee. Her mother was Adeline de l'Etang, a daughter of French aristocrats. She was educated in France, but generally associated herself with Britain. She returned to India where she married Scottsman Charles Hay Cameron, a jurist and member of the Law Commission stationed in Calcutta (1838). He was much older, but provided a comfortable life style for here. Photography was not an interest until her daughter gave her a camera as a Chtistmas present when she was nearly 50 years old (1862). Thus her photographs are all from two decades in the decond half of the 19th century. She was as a photographer a perfectionist. Incredibly it took her over a year to be satified with her first print--a portait of a neigbor girl named Annie. She would have her subjects sit for hours in bright sunlight. Cameron is important because she was one of the few early Scottish photographers. She spent time in Edinburgh for several years. She also lived in England where she photographed the luminaries of the day. Some of the best pgotographs of men like Darwin, Tennyson, and many others are her portraits. In some cases they are the only surviving portraits. She was friendly with Lewis Carroll and took mny portraits of Alice Lidell (Caroll's Alice in Wonderland). Caroll photographed her with her two boys. Part of the reason that Cameron is so well known is that she meticulously registered each of her photographs with the British copyright office and maintained detailed records. She returned to India and lived in Ceylon (Sri Lank) where she continued her photographi work. Virtually all of this work has been lost.
Carlo Naya was born in ??? (1816). He moved to Venice (1857). There he worked as a professional photographer. Venice at the time was part of the Austrian Empire. He died in Venice (1882). He worked with
Tomaso Filippi during his later years. Their photos give us a great testimony of Venice and its lagoon in 19th and early-20th centuries. Naya took a lot of photographs in Giudecca, an island in the Venice lagoon. His work provides some of the earliest photograohic images of Venice, especially images showing everyday life.
Early record of Paris life. He has provided some wonderful family scenes. See for example The Vicomte de Lesseps was one of the most famous Frenchman of the mid-19th Century because of his role in building the Suez Canal.
Gaspard-Felix Nadar is one of the photographic giants of the 19th century. He is of some interest to HBC because of the many portarits he took, including family prtraits. His life, however, cuts a wondeful swaith through the 19th century and the extent and diversity of his activities and talents is breath taking. Photography was probably his most financially rewarding enterprise, but it was in fact only one part of his many varied life works.
William Notman set up a photographic studio in Montreal, Canada only a few years after photography was developed, about 1845. It was one of the principal photograohic studios in Canada. Both English and French speaking Canadians were photographed there. As Notman and his sons opperated their studio until about 1935, it provides a wonderful pictorial history of the Canadian people. The whole collection comprises about 450,000 negatives and is archived in the Musée McCord. The Museum explains, "Portraits comprise a major part of the Notman collection. Prominent Montrealers and visitors from abroad sought out William Notman's studio to have their likenesses committed to silver for posterity."
Thomas Annan was born in Born in Dairsie, Fife. Fife is the Scottish country north of Edinburg across the Fifth of Fourth. He was one of the seven children of John Annan, a flax spinner meaning a very low-income family. It was an occupation that the Indutrial Revolution was destroying. He is important as one of Scotland's earliest photographers. We know nothing Thomas apprenticed as a lithographic writer and engraver at the Fife Herald newspaper in Cupar. He moved to Glasgow and worked as a lithographer and engraver for Joseph Swan (1849). He then joined with George Berwick to set up a calotype studio (1855). Calotype also called talbotype was an early photographic process developed by William Henry Fox Talbot, using paper coated with silver iodide. It did not prove as suceesful as the Daguerreotype and Ambrotype. One of the few surviving early photographs was the ship RMS Persia being buokt on the Clyde. It was probably ordered by by engineer, Robert Napier (1855). He went of business for himself (1857) and moved (1859). He expanded byopening a printing works in Hamilton (1863). Annan was initially especially interested in architectural photography and then shidted to portraits. He also photographed artworks and maps. His most important project was photographing slum areas of Glasgow, a major industrial city). He began taking pgotographs in the lums (1866). We are not sure Annan realized how important this was, but today they are the primary photographic legasy he has left. He was the first Scottish photographr to record the poor housing conditions of the poor. Our intert is images of children. We have not found many portraits of children he produced, but there are some children in the slum images. Hus slum photographs were used by Glasgow City Improvement Trust to document the overcrowded, unhygienic conditions. This heped in the novement for redevelopments. Most of these photograph were a series entitled 'Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow' (1868-71).
Felix Bonfils (1831-1885) was active as a photographer (1860-1880). He moved from France to Lebanon (1867) and established a studio in Beirut which at the time was part of the Ottoman Empire. Bonfils photographed extensively in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Greece. His photographs were used to sell to tourists and to Europeans desiring photographs of exotic places (especially the Levant) to put into scrapbooks. He reported a stock of 600 negatives (1871). His son Adrian began operating the studio (1878). He also signed his negatives with the signature "BONFILS" that his father used. So older Bonfils photographs up to #600 are from Felix Bonfils. The higher numbers are from Adrian. The company Bonfils existed until to the end of the 19th century. The provide some of the earliest photographic records of the Levant. One of the noticeable observations from their work is the pverty and backwardnesses of Ottoman provinces like Palestine.
Only limited informstion is available on Wilhelm Hammerschmidt. He is the first important German photographer that we have noted, although his work is primarily associated with the Middle East--especially Egypt. He was born in Berlin about 1830. We know nothing sbout his childhood. Suddenly we begin to see his photographs (about 1955). Hammersmith was not the first European photograoher to photograph in the Middle East, but he was the first German photographer we know of and he was one of the first to set up a studio in Cairo rather than just visit. With the invention of photography (1839), Europeans and Americans began figuring out how to turn the new technology into a business. People at the time were hungry for images and there was a market for images frfom exotic places like the Middle East to include in photograph albums. And as steamships and railroads made travel easier, we see new photographers attempting to meet the demand for oriental images. Wilhelm Hammerschmidt dirst and then Félix Bonfils opened studios in Cairo. Having local studios meant that these photographers could use glass-plate negatives which enabled them to capture wonderful, crystal clear images. Hammerschmidt appears to have opened a studio in Berlin (mid-1850s) and then in Cauiro (about 1860). He appears to have worked for or with Hermann Wilhelm Vogel. Hammerschmidt traveled back and forth. While not the first orientalist photographer, he was the first of the second generation of photographers who bwith improved techniques and equipment, capture the first ctrystal clear images of the Middle East. His impaces are notable for their technical perfection and the way he captured the bright sunlight of the desert. He produced some wonderful panoramas. He worked extensively along the Nile south to Sudan and also west into the Libyan Desert and east into Palestine, especially Jerusalem. He was granted mermbershup in the Socité française de la photographie (1865). His photographs were shown at the Paris World Fair (1867). He photographed the Suez Canal opening (1869), but then his work suddenly stopped. Perhaps he became ill. He died soon after (about 1870). We have seen different dates.
|
Giuseppe Bruno was born in Capizzi on Sicily (1836). Photograohy was invented 3 years later in France (1839). Many Italians took up photography before Bruno, but they mostly did so as an vocation, opening commercial studios to take portraits. There are relativelt few Italians, like Carlo Naya in Venice that pursued photography as a passion. We have found mny Bruno images on the internet, but have found very limited informatiion about him. Bruno means brown and in Italy as in England and Ameruca is a very common name, an interesting phenomenon. He studied to be an engineer, but had the good fortune to marry a wealthy woman. This gave him the opportunity to pursue the passion the acquired at a young age--the new medium of photography. Photography was just beginning to be seen as an art form. He experimented with a range of techniques of printing of images. As a result, he began calling himself a 'chemist-photographer', although it is his subject matter for which he is best known today. He was instrumental in the career of German photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden who took up residence in he same area of Sicily and took some similar ethniographic photographs. Bruno worked almost exclusively in Sicily, especially Taormina and Capizzi. He began photographing landcapes and monuments and than began weaving people into his landscapes, especially working peoole. In his more importnt works, the hard working people of Sicily are his focus. This makes his work of spdecial interest to Anericns as Italians were one of the most important immigrant groups and many canme from Bruno's Sicily. American history text books make a major point of the difficult conditions for immigrants in the late-19th and early 20th century. Never do they address the obvious question, if life was so diffucult in America, why did they come? A primary reason of course, is that life was so much more difficult for working-class Europans. Bruno created images that should also be in the text books. Many early images of the Italian woking class exiust today because Bruno captured them. This included working class children many of whom were working at a very early age. The Italian peasant girl here is a good example (figure 2). Bruno died in Taormina (1904).
Although not Persian, Antoin Sevruguin is one of thge most important early Persian photographers. He has left us some of the fe images of 19th century Persia. Sadly much of his body of work has best lost, both by accident and an effort to hide the country's past. Armenian-Georgian photographer Sevruguin's photographs were taken during the late-19th and early-19th century. Large numbers were destroyed. Some of the surviving images were saved by his sister. Antoin was born in the Russian embassy in Tehran, Persia (late-1830s). His father was an Armenian, Vassil de Sevruguin. His mother was Georgian Achin Khanoum. Armenia and Georgia at the time were part of the Russian empire, Caucasian provinces conquered from the Ottoman Empire. The senior Sevruguin was part of the Russian diplomatic mission in Tehran. Hecwas killed in aseback riding accident. For some reason after Antoin's father died, his mother was denied a pension based on her husband's service. She returned to her native Tiblisi. Antoin was studying art, thinking about pursuing a career in portrait painting. He gave this up in pat because he needed to make a living. He set up a photographic studio. As they had lived many years in Tehran and there were few studios there, he established himselkf in Tehran rather than Tiblisi. His brothers (Kolia and Emanuel) helped him set up the studio. He was active from 1870-1930. Sevruguin was an accomplished linquist. In addition to Russian, Armenian, and Georgian, he learned Persian as well as other languages widely spoken in Persia. He was thus able to freely commuicate with not only ethnic Persians, but many other ethnic geroups in Persia. This opened many doors and allowed him to complile an extensive collection of images documenting Persia life at the time. He was the court photograoher and operated one of the most successful commercil studios in Tehran. His photographs include the royal court, harems, mosques,other religious monuments. landscapes, as well as the many varied people of Persia. Shah Nasir al-Din Shah (1846–96)developed an interest in photography and Sevruguin's work. This of course opened many doors for him. His images show Tehran as only a small city. Other are the only 19th century images of important landmarks. His ethnographic images are particularly important. ' Tragically most of his images are lost. Cossacks serving Muhammad Ali Shah (1907–09) bombarded the neuighborhood where his studio ws located as part of an action to suppress Zahiru’d-Dawla, the constitutionalist Governor of Rasht. Sevruguin'is believed to have amssed more than 7,000 images. Only 2,000 were pulled out of the wreckage. Later Reza Shah Pahlavi (1925–1941) confiscated more of the remaining images, seeking to destroy any evidence of thge coutrt's traditional past. Most of what has survived are images hekd by his sister.
Kusakabe Kimbei was an early Japanese photographer who compiled an extensive collection of 19th and early-20th century photographs. He usually went by his given (firstvanbd Christian don't quite fit in Japan), Kimbei, because his clientele, mostly foreigners, were able to pronounce it. His family name was more difficult. The first photographers in Jaoan were foreigners. Kimbei was hired by Felice Beato and Baron Raimund von Stillfried to wotk in their studio as a colorist and general assistant. Once he had acquired the necessary technival skills, he opened his own studio in Yokohama (1881). Yokahama is the port of Tokyo. Thus most of his photographs date from the 1880s. After he became establishedhe also opened a studio in the Ginza quarter of Tokyo. Ginza is an exclusive shopping district. He accumulated a wonderful collection of Japanese images. Not only did he take many photographs himself, but he purchased the negatives of other early photographs. He purchased the negatives of his formner employers (Felice Beato and of Stillfried). He also purchased the negatives of Uchida Kuichi and Ueno Hikoma in Nagasaki. Kimbei was active for over three decades. He has left us some of the best images of Meiji Japan. Kimbei stopped working as a photographer just before World War I (1912-13). Photographic studios mostly took mportraits, but Kenbei did a good deal of genre work. A good example is sailor boys of Yokahama.
William Henry Jackson had a spectacular career encompassing painting, Civil War veteran, geological survey photographer and an explorer, and entrepreneur. He was also a great-great nephew of Samuel Wilson--the inspiration for America's national symbol Uncle Sam. William was born in Keeseville, New York (1843). This was just after photography was invented, but his first passion was for painting, excelling in water colours. He graduated from the Troy Female Academy (Emma Willard School). While still a teenager he had become a talented artist, in paet because of his mother's interests. He produced many wonderful images of pre-Civil-War America. Aftr brief service in the Civil War he headed west. He won a commission from the Union Pacific Railroad to document the scenery along the various railroad routes for promotional purposes (1969). Photography was a wonderful medium for this because so many more images could be photographed than painted. He thus became an importnt early Ametivan photographer. Jackson was a prodigy as a painter and never gave it up even as he was creating numerous important photograohic immages. He was especially famous for his paintings of the American West it in classic period after the Civil War. He was almost bankrupted by the Panic and Depression of 1893-95. He accepted a propisition offered by Marshall Field, the noted Chicago departmnent store owner, to go on a world tour with the purpse of photographing and gathering specimens for a a huge museu, planned for Chicago. His photograohs and written reports were published by Harper's Weekly magazine. He returned to Denver and enteed the world of buiness and publishing. He sold his extensive stock of negatives and his own services to the Detroit Publishing Co. (1897). The company had just acquired the exclusive ownership and rights to the photochrom process in America. Jackson then joined the company as president (1898). - This was just as the Spanish American War broke out and created a huge interest in foreign countries and demand for the Detroit Publishing Company's images, primarily consusting of Jackson's archive. The Company produced images ranging from postcards to mammoth-plate panoramas. Jackson final major effort was painting murals of the Old West for the new U.S. Department of the Interior building in Washington, D.C. (1924). Late in life he was hired as a technical advisor for the filming of 'Gone with the Wind' (1939).
Jacob Riis was born in Ribe, Denmark during 1849. His parents had 15 children. He was the third oldest. I know nothing about his childhood and education, but know he became a carpenter in Copenhagen. He emmigrated to America after the Civil War in 1870. After coming to America, Riis had trouble finding work and for a while was homeless. Apparently the Police provided lodging houses for the indigent. I had never heard of this before. Riis worked as a menial labor, but eventually became a journalist. This is of course quite impressive, because journalism requiring effective English-language skills is a difficult profession for foreigners to enter. He began working for a New York bureau (1873). He began working for the South Brooklyn News (1874). Then he became a police reporter for the New York Tribune (1877), one of the most influntial newspapers in America. As a result of his experiences, Riis became a crusader for the ppor. Riis argued against the prevailing attitude in America. He saw the poor as "victims" rather than the indolent who were responsible for their plight. Riis became one of the first photo journalists when he was hired by the New York Evening Sun. Riis began using flash powder which allowed him to photograph interiors as well as exteriors, providing images of slum live never before available. His images of children are especially poignent. He was one of the first muckraking journalist.
Lwis Carroll is of course not best known for his photography, but rather as a writer, especially his book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He was, however, an avid amateur photographer. One of his favorite subjects was children. He has left us a wonderful record of late 19th century children's clothing. Most of his photogrph were of girls, but he also left some interesting images of boys showing interesting outfits.
I know very little about these two Greek photographers. Very little biographical detail is available for George and Constantine Zangaki, beyond the fact that they were Greek brothers who were originally associated with the French photographer Hippolyte Arnoux. Even their dates are unknown. They were active from the 1860s to the 1880s, principally in Egypt and Palestine, and they appear to have been based in Cairo, possibly with a branch in Port Said. They seem to have taken photograpgs of the region for sale to Europeans interested in the Holy Land and Africa. Some of the images are staged studio portraits.
Kasebier's photography was primarily portraiture. Although she photographed many important people, her favorite theme was motherhood. During her later years, she began taking landscapes, but her coincentration was still on portraits. She was born in Iowa during 1852, but also lived in Colorado and New York as a girl. Gertrude did not begin with a desire to be a photographer. Her initial desire was to be a portrait painter. Her marriage ws unhappy, but she had hree children. As a marriefd woman and mother she studied at the Pratt Institute (1889-93). She studied drawing and painting, but grdually became more interested in photography. The force of her portraits attracted considerable critical acclaim.
Tomaso Filippi was born in Venice (1852). He began working with Carlo Naya (1880). He opened his own studio, also in Venice (1895). Like Naya, Filippi took many images of Venice depicting the city and its people. One area he liked to photograph was Chioggia, a village on the side of the lagoon. He ended his photigraphic activity (1925) and died (1948).
Francis Meadow Sutcliffe know as Frank was an eary English photographer who was notable for not only taking portraits, but for compiling a artistic and social record of life in the seaside town of Whitby where he lived and also area around Whitby. Whitby is a North Sea pot town near Scarborough in the county of North Yorkshire. Few early photographers did this, for the most part limiting their activities to studio photograophy as ausiness. Most of his genre photographs were talem in the late-19th century and early-20th century (1870-1910). His body of work is of interest to HBC because it included some children, commonly the ordinary street children from wirking-class families who are often captured bu the predominarely studio photography of the day. Frank was born in Headingley, Leeds (1853). His parents were Thomas Sutcliffe and Sarah Lorentia Button (1853). His education was limited to a dame school, meaning not even a complete primary education. It is unclear why an established artist like his father did not provide his son a better education. Sutcliffe was fascinated by the new medium of photography and he pursued a career as a portrait photographer, the way to earn money as a photographer in the 19th century. Hefirst worked in Tunbridge Wells, Kent then for the rest of his life in Whitby. Here in addition to his photographic studio, he attempted to capture some of hs fathers landscape images concentrating more obn town images with his camera, but added an interest in creating a record of ordinary life and orfinary people. His father was a great asset to his carrerhad brought him into contact with prominent because of his personal relationship to important individuals in the British artistic community such as John Ruskin. Sutcliffe saw himseld as an artist with a new medium and rather resented having to earn money by taking photographs of tourists. He deligently pursued his art and his body of work in Whitby and the Eskdale valley is tody the most complete record of ordinary life in a late-Victorian Edwardian town. His most famous photograph was probanly 'Water Rats' because of the controversy it caused (1888). It depicted naked children playing in a boat along the shore (1888). He was just using photography to create a scene a genre artist might have created. The local clergy was outraged even though they would not have obkected to a ciomarable painted image. They excommunicated him for displaying it, believing it would 'corrupt' the opposite sex. He also had his defenders. The the Prince of Wales future Edward VII) would purchased a copy of the photograph.
|
William Edward Green was born in Bristol (1855). He later changed his name to William Friese-Greene. In Britain this is an affectation of people interested in status. Affter an appreticeshipn and working in a studio he fell out with the owner and set up his own studio. He developed a reputation for compsure and artfully taken portraits. We do not know much about his career, but a HBC reader tells us that he shot many images of London children. He is probably best known for his work with early efforts of motion pictures and color photography. After receiving a commission to produce magic lantern slides he became interested in the idea of moving pictures. He waa a tinkerer as well as a photograher and made some important advances. He encounteted, however, all kinds of financial and legal problems. Much of his work was carried out in the late-19th century. After the turn-of the-20th century he and his son was involved in intractable legal battles the nature of which partially explain whu England lagged behind in both motion pictures and color photography.
Wilhelm von Gloeden (1856-1931) was a German photographer who lived most of his life in Taormina, Sicily and pursued his photographic endevors there. Giuseppe Bruno worked in the same area abnd influenced the younger man. Von Gloden is famous for his photographs of the young male nude. He posed boys from Taormina. This is not of great interest for HBC, but he also produced ethnograophic images similar to the work of Bruno which are of interest. Von Gloeden often published the work of others as hus own, especilly Bruno's photograohs, the attribution has become complicated.
No list of American photographers would be complete without Solomon D. Butcher. His work is an important source of information on families on the Western frontier, specifically the Great Plains. He worked for over 40 years and is best known for his work in Custer Country, Nebraska. Butcher was born in 1856 in what was at the time Virginia, but during the Civil War became West Virginia. Butcher's family moved west to Nebraska in the 1880s. It was at this time that homesteaders were carving family farms out of the Great Planes. He decided that he was not capable of that, but was impressed with the men and women who were. He conceived of the idea of creating a photographic history of thus effort (1886). He also found this was a good selling point to get Nebraska's thrifty homesteaders to buy a portrait of thehir family and homesteads. He took more than 3,000 between 1886 and 1912 leaving an ireplaceable historical records. He recorded a great deal, but probably nothing was more important than the record of the families and homestead. Not many Americans recognize his name, but many recognize his photographs.
Eveleen Myers, née Tennant, was born in London (1856). Her parents were Charles Tennant, M.P. and Gertrude Barbara Rich Collier. Her mother had grown up in France. She was close to Flaubert, Gambetta and other important French intellectuals. Mrs Tennant's London salon attracted leading members of London society, especially writersc abd artists. ndividuals incuded Primeminiter William Gladstone, Sir John Ruskin, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, George F. Watts, and Edward Burne-Jones. Eveleen who was the youngest of gthree daughters thus grew up in a highly literate and artistioc environmrnt. And both Eveleen and her sister Dorothy played active roles in their mother's artistic social life. Both were beautiful girls. They were painted by Frederick Watts and John Everett Millais. The portraits were shown at the Royal Academy a matter o considerable social prestige. Dorothy has an interesting life of her own, marring the explorer H.M. Stanley. Eveleen married the writer Frederick William Henry Myers (1843-1901) in 1880. The Myers moved to Leckhampton House, Cambridge which had been designed especially for them by the noted architect William C. Marshall. The house today is part of Corpus Christi College. Frederick and Eveleen had three children, Leopold Hamilton (1881-1944); Silvia Constance (1883-1957), and Harold (1886-1952). Eveleen Myers apparently lacking artistic skills took up photography (1888). Modern snap shot photography had not yet been developed. Photography was still a rather complicated matter and mostly a male persuit. Her initial interest was taking portraits of the children. Biographers believe that the idea was inplanted when as ahild she was photoigraphed by Julia Margaret Cameron while on a vacation to the Isle of Wight. The immages she left are interesting and show how children from well-to-do soiciety were dressed. , but difficult to understand. Both Harld and Leopold wore dresses whebn they were little which was not uncommon at the time. What we do not understand is that Harlld was breeched ad had his hair cut short before his older brother. Family conventiuions concerning hair and clothing varied widely. This was, however, not common. And we botice that Leopold did not always wear skirted garments. We also notice images of him wearing trousers.
Paul Lancrenon (1857-1922) was a distinguished French military officer. He was born in Besançon (1857). Besançon is a city in northeast France close to the Swiss border. His father was a prominant lawyer. He studied at the Ecole Polytechnique, graduated (1876). He decided to pursue a military career. He joined the ranks of the School of Artillery Application and Engineering at Fontainebleau. He served during World War I, most prominantly at the Somme and Verdun. He enjoyed hiking and photigraphy. He was a gifted amateur photographer. His primary legacy is today his 10,000 of his photographic plates. He traveled both in connection with his military career as well as personal travel. This afforded him to photograph throughout Europe as far east at the Volga and south to North Africa. We notice a lot of landcapes. His work hs been archived by the French Ministry of Culture. They are a wonderful record of Belle Epoque France and other countries. They incluse fascinating images of children. He died as an instructor at he Teaching Hospital of the Armed Val de Grace, as a result of illness contracted at the front during World war I.
George Hendrik Breitner was born in tghe Netherlands (1857). He is much admired impressionist arttist. He acquired a Kodak camera (about 1890). He used it to capture the everyday life that interested him in the streets of Amsterdam. He began shooting photographs to capture fleeting images on the street that interested him. He found photographs to be a useful tool for recording the fleeting conditions of street life and the atmospheric effects that he was trying to capture in his paintings. He was especially interested in ovdrcast and rainy weather. Relatively easy to use hand held captures began to appear (1890s). No set up was required so the kind of candid scenes that inrersted him could be taken. All he had to do was point and shoot. But he soon learned how to psition hiself and fain perspective using th available lighting comditiins. His camera was the Kodak Model 1 Box with film preloaded. The No 1 was actually Kodak's second camera and was 1889 to 1895. So nuch of Breitners photograohic work dates to the 1890s. The photographs provide a wonderful view of Ansertdam street life in the 1890s. His sunstantial archive of photographs were unknown for a century until they were discovered (1996). While Breiner was an artist, clearly he ws a skilled photigraopher. A few were the iunspiratioin for one of his paintings, but mostly he used his photograohs as a kind of reference library on atmosphere, light effects, and weather.
An important American photographer was Cicero C. Simmons (1857-1939). Simmons was a very talented Georgia photographer. He specialized In portraits, documenting special events and portraying everyday rural life. He was a talented artist and photojournalist of his day. Simmons created many wonderful images in his 45 year career that spanned from 1880-1925. His special gift for composition, use of lighting and capturing the moment make his images something to treasure. His body of work spans the late-19th and early-20th century.
Arthur Albert 'Esmé' Collings was a notable Brirish photographer who got involved in motion pictures as well as eventually shifted to painting. Collings originally worked with his father in the family trade of boot making. He met Keturah Anne Beedle (1862- ) who like Arthur had artistic inclinations. Either sometime before this or right after the marriage the two began working together as partners in a photographic studio. They formed a partnership with William Friese-Greene (1885). Arthur married Keturah (1887). Collings also worked in Liverpool. Like Friese-Greene, Collings and
Keturah produced artfully composed portraits. He eventually had a falling out with Friese-Greene over his lackidasical work habits. Collings moved to London and opening studios on Bond Street and later on New Bond Street. He specialised in miniatures on vellum as well as more conventional platinotypes. Friese-Greene was as a pioneer in "moving pictures" and Collings appears to have develped an interest as a result of their association. He made severa erly films whicgh have not survived. Keturah Collings continued to run a fashionable London photographic studio in London and was an enthusiastic watercolourist.
Urban Paris
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to:Main chronological individual photographer page]
[Return to:Main individual photographer page]
[Return to:Main photographer page]
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Sailor suits]
[Sailor hats]
[Buster Brown suits]
[Eton suits]
[Rompers]
[Tunics]
[Smocks]
[Pinafores]
