HF The History of Photography 600pág

Naturalistic photography
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occurred in the I 89os, in painting as well as in photography. The Linked Ring included
all the members of the Naturalistic School-except its founder, ALEXANDER
KEIGHLEY, and, rather incongruously, the old-fashioned pictorialist H. P. ROBINSON.
During the nxt few years several other photographers joined, of whom the following
became prominent: J. CRAIG ANNAN, H. H. H. CAMERON, FREDERICK H. EVANS
and FREDERICK HOLL YER.
JAMES CRAIG ANNAN, who introduced photogravure into Britain in I883, was a
great admirer of Whistler and a close friend of the etcher (Sir) David Young
Cameron. It is therefore not surprising that Annan's best work is in photogravures
and photo-etchings. His fine portraits of well-known people taken in his Glasgow Pl 284
studio have been somewhat overshadowed by his pictorial work.
Julia Margaret Cameron's youngest son HENRY HERSCHEL HAY CAMERON became
a professional portrait photographer in London in the mid-I88os. His portraits of
celebrities unmistakably betray the influence of his mother's style; technically, his Pl 285
silver-prints are considerably better. In I905 Cameron gave up photography to become
an actor.
FREDERICK H. EV ANS was a bookseller in the City of London until I 898 when he
became a professional photographer, having been an amateur since the mid-I 88os.
Evans specialized in portraits of his literary and artistic friends, who included Aubrey Pl 286
Beardsley whom he set on his career as an illustrator, William Morris for whom he
photographed Kelmscott Manor, and G. B. Shaw who staged for him a special
camera performance of Mrs Warren's Profession in I902. Evans is perhaps still better
known for his series of photographs of English cathedrals, beginning in I 896 with Pl 288
Lincoln and later continued for Country Lffe, for which magazine he also photographed
many French chateaux and cathedrals before I9I4. He brought sensitive
interpretation to architectural photography and raised this branch-hitherto regarded
in England as merely record work-to an art. Evans was a firm believer in pure
technique, and gave up photography when his favourite platinum paper became
unobtainable during the First World War.
FREDERICK H. HOLL YER, a professional portrait photographer since the I 87os, was
prominent during the I 89os and the Edwardian period for his excellent portraits of
well-known artists photographed in their own surroundings. He too was a purist,
and his platinotypes are refreshingly free from stereotyped effects. Hollycr devoted
only one day a week to portraiture, the rest were spent on the reproduction of paintings,
in which field he ranked as the greatest specialist in Britain.
ALEXANDER KEIGHLEY, an amateur, was Britain's leading pictorialist after the death
of Horsley Hinton in 1908. In Keighley's large idealized romantic landscapes the
composition was 'improved' by hand-work. He used the carbon process and sometimes
the oil print right up to the I 94os. Keighley had a liking for sunlit objects highlighted
from the surrounding gloom. 'The Bridge' is a typical Keighley version of a Pl 287
simple Venetian scene.
At the time of the formation of the Linked Ring it seemed natural that George
Davison should assume leadership of the group, which was largely drawn to landscape
work, in which the British had always excelled. Davison had gone to the Essex
marshes for some of his best-known pictures, and a weekly exodus of the secessionists
to Canvey Island and the Blackwater resulted. Going into Essex, the photographers
could not help discovering the Constable country, which also formed the subject of
many pictures, chiefly by Horsley Hinton. As editor of The Amateur Photographer he
strove ceaselessly for the recognition of photography as an art medium, and his own
landscapes lent force to his arguments. A strong personality of moderate views,