Research

19th century social documentary photographers in the UK

Henry Peach Robinson (09/07/1830)
Born in Ludlow, Shropshire
Peach Robinson was a pictorialist photographer who was the first to use a combination method of printing, by jointing multiple negatives together to form a single image 'photomontage'.

His most famous image was called 'fading away' 1858, an image of death and the pain of waiting for death to come, the image was made up of several combined images.

His images were usually posed and his influence of the painter John Ruskin can be seen in his pre-Raphaelite style.

Julia Margaret Cameron (11/06/1815 - 26/01/1979)
This British photographer took up photography later in life at the age of 48. She became famous for her head and shoulder portraits which were often closely cropped and softly focussed. She made many images of the rich and famous celebrities.

Frank Meadow Sutcliffe
Born in Leeds in 1853, but grew up in Whitby, which was to be an important subject of his work.
The painter John Ruskin saw one of his photographs and was impressed with what he saw.  Whitby at the time was a thriving tourist resort, Sutcliffe took photographs of wealthy holiday makers.  He also took photographs of people working, his images showing high technical merit and winning many global awards and showing at major exhibitions in the UK. Today there is the Sutcliffe Gallery in Whitby, which has become a destination for those who love his work.

Sutcliffe took photographs of Victorians going about their daily life, working people, many of whom were fisher folk, candid and showing people working together in comoradary. Some show the women waiting for the fishing boats to return, the image capturing the emotion of the scene. Although it appeart that times were hard, the peopke in his pictures look happy, especially the children, when compared to the photo's taken around the same time by Riis in the tenements of New York, life certaibly appears to be better.