HF The History of Photography 600pág

25 Some famous portrait photographers
Pl 192
Of the army of portrait photographers in the second half of the nineteenth century,
many were excellent, though few deserve to be called 'great'. That the work of these
few came as a revelation to critics and the public alike when in 1951 for the first time
a large number of their portraits were shown at the Arts Council exhibition, 'Masterpieces
of Victorian Photography', can be surmised from the News Chronicle statement
: 'No convincing reason has yet been put forward why Victorian photographers
made better pictures, especially portraits, than any of their successors have done with
superior equipment.' The main reason undoubtedly lies in the fact that all the wellknown
Victorian photographers were formerly artists, or had at least received an art
training. A contributory factor often overlooked is that fine portraits can only be
taken by photographers who are either financially independent, or so famous that
they can go their own way, for very few sitters will accept a realistic, truthful portrait,
and only the man who photographs primarily for his own pleasure can afford to take
portraits of people as they really are and not as they would like to appear. There are
such photographers today, too, but their work is mostly lost in the sea of mediocrity.
The vast majority of photographers are businessmen and nothing more ; few have
the good fortune to take only Men of Mark.
THOMAS ANNAN, originally a copperplate engraver in Glasgow, took up photography
in 1 8 5 5, specializing in landscapes and art reproductions, with which he
achieved a reputation which extended far beyond the borders of his native Scotland.
His fine portraits of Livingstone, the professors at Glasgow University, and other
well-known contemporaries, were not taken in the ordinary course of business, but
for publication. They are simple and straightforward, and characterized by complete
absence of the usual studio 'props' and stereotyped poses evident in most professional
work of the time. The portraits of professors, especially, show the influence of his
friend D. 0. Hill.
Among the few really great portraitists it is not a professional but an amateur who
Pl 193 takes the leading place-JULIA MARGARET CAMERON. Born in Calcutta, Mrs Cameron
was the wife of Charles Hay Cameron, a distinguished jurist and one of the members
of the Supreme Council. of India. Intellectual, artistic, and unconventional to the
degree of eccentricity, the mother of six children of her own and several adopted
ones, Mrs Cameron still had energy to spare for social, humanitarian, and literary
activities. When, in I 848, the Camerons settled in England, their house soon became
the meeting-place of men of letters and of art.
Photography came to Mrs Cameron by chance when her daughter presented her
with a photographic outfit in I 863. Characteristically, she threw herself into this new