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History of Photography in 40 Photographs

Ref Number:
1995-5024/0006

Creator
Anna Atkins (1799-1871)

Cyanotype, from Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns

1851

Anna Atkins was one of the first female photographers, and is known for having produced the first photographically illustrated book in Britain. Entitled British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, the three-volume publication appeared in instalments over a ten year period from 1843 onwards. The completed work contained over 400 photographs of British algae. Atkins used the Cyanotype process, which had been invented by Sir John Herschel in 1842, to make her images.

Cyanotypes, also known as blueprints and commonly used by the engineering industry, were made using chemically photosensitive paper. Relatively cheap and easy to produce, cyanotypes became very popular in nineteenth century amateur photographic circles.

Atkins made her images by laying specimens directly onto sensitised paper and exposing them to sunlight. Once exposed, the prints needed only washing and drying as no further chemicals were required in the production of the images.

Atkins went on to produce several more cyanotype albums featuring many striking images, mainly of ferns and other plants. This particular image dates from 1851 and bears the inscription 'From the great conservatory, Chatsworth'. It is now kept in the National Media Museum Collection, along with the rest of the album.
Ref Number:
1937-0361

Creator
William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877)

Latticed Window at Lacock Abbey

1835

William Henry Fox Talbot is one of the key figures in the invention of photography. He established the basic principle of photography as a negative/positive process.

In 1834, five years before the public announcement of the daguerreotype, Talbot developed a process which produced a negative image on sensitised paper. The negative could then be used to create multiple positive photographs by contact printing. This photograph Latticed Window at Lacock Abbey, taken in August 1835, is the earliest known surviving negative.

In September 1840 Talbot made a further vital breakthrough when he discovered that invisible, or 'latent', images were formed on sensitised paper even after relatively short exposure times. These images could be made visible, or 'developed', if treated with chemicals. By inventing the processes needed to make latent images visible and 'fix' them to stop them from fading, Talbot made the future development of photography possible.
Ref Number:
2003-5001/2/20544

Creator
Oscar Gustave Rejlander (1813–1875)

The Two Ways of Life

1857

Oscar Gustave Rejlander, a pioneering Victorian art photographer, was born in Sweden in 1813. Originally a portrait painter and a copyist of old masters, by the 1840s he was working as a portrait photographer in London.

Rejlander is best known for his allegorical combination print The Two Ways of Life which he created in 1857. Printed from 32 separate glass negatives, the photograph depicts two young men as they look towards manhood. The central figure of the patriarch offers the men two choices – a future filled with religion, families and good works or one dominated by gambling, wine and prostitution. The photograph was inspired by the paintings of the Italian Renaissance and although it reflected the Victorian preoccupation with religion and morality, it provoked considerable controversy when it was exhibited as it included images of semi-nude models.

Like other Victorian photographers who specialised in printing with multiple negatives (William Lake Price and Henry Peach Robinson in particular) Rejlander was keen to address the charge that photography was largely a mechanical process and as such, had no claim to status as an art form. This composition, designed at least in part to rival painting, was shown at the Manchester Art Treasures exhibition of 1857, in which photographs were displayed alongside paintings and sculptures for the first time.
Ref Number:
1984-5017/69

Creator
Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1879)

Iago

1867

Julia Margaret Cameron is one of the most important, influential and creative photographers of the 19th century. She is known for her enigmatic, often allegorical, portraits made using atmospheric lighting, long exposure times and soft focus techniques.

Cameron favoured literary, historical and religious themes. Her negatives were made on large glass plates. Exposure times were long and the resulting images have a romantic and spiritual quality. She often aimed to portray innocence, piety and wisdom through her photographs, or to depict figures and scenes from religion or literature. Cameron's unconventional portraits usually featured her household staff, friends and family members, although she also made many distinctive portraits of prominent figures in the fields of arts and sciences such as Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Sir John Herschel and Charles Darwin. This photograph of Angelo Colarossi, a professional model hired by Cameron, makes a direct reference to literature; Iago being a character in Shakespeare's Othello.

Cameron took up photography at the age of 48, having been given a camera by her daughter as a present. For the next eleven years, photography dominated her life. She used it as a creative tool as well as a means of making money – she was a shrewd businesswoman who worked hard to market her work. Today, her images are recognised as having outstanding artistic value and are credited with having had a huge impact on the development of modern photography.
Ref Number:
2003-5001/2/20152

Creator
Roger Fenton (1819–1869)

The Valley of the Shadow of Death

1855/6

Roger Fenton was one of Britain's most important and accomplished photographers. He is remembered for a large number of remarkably diverse works, ranging from photographs of the Crimea War, to portraits of the Royal Family, landscapes and architectural studies and a series of sumptuous still life compositions.

Born into a wealthy family, Fenton studied both law and painting before taking up photography. He was amongst the first Victorians to regard photography as a commercial venture and photographed landscapes, beauty spots and stately homes with a view to print sales. He was also keen to promote photography's status as an art form and in 1853 was a founder member of The Photographic Society, which later became The Royal Photographic Society.

In 1855 Fenton travelled to Balaclava to photograph the Crimean War, at the direct request of Queen Victoria. The photographs which he brought back are some of the earliest photographs of war ever taken. They do not, however, portray the brutality of war and for the most part are officer portraits and views of the encampments.

This photograph, of a desolate valley strewn with cannon balls, takes its title from a line in Tennyson's famous poem The Charge of the Light Brigade. Fenton's photograph communicates the dismal aftermath, in which the emptiness acts as a symbol of the tragedy of war.
Ref Number:
1984-5132/0003

Creator
Francis Frith (1822–1898)

The Wool Exchange, Bradford

1895

Francis Frith was a Victorian topographical photographer who ran a large photographic business. He specialised in producing photographic prints of British beauty spots and other tourist views, including, as in this example, landmark buildings. Frith set up his business in 1860 and by the time of his death in 1898 had opened branches all over the world.

Interest in topographic photographs grew in Victorian Britain, in line with other developments which characterised the age, particularly travel and the growth of the railways. In addition, new legislation introduced mandatory holidays for working people for the first time, enabling holidays at the coast, or in the country. The growth in tourism, coupled with the emergence of the new middle class, and set against the background of imperial expansion, prompted a powerful new desire for knowledge - to see new things and experience more of the world.

This photograph shows one of Victorian Bradford's most significant buildings, the Wool Exchange. A bustling Victorian city thanks to the wool industry, this building, which is now Grade 1 listed, was important not only for its impressive gothic revival architecture, but also for the central role it played in maintaining the prosperity of the city.
Ref Number:
1987-5201/0028

Creator
Thomas Annan (1829-1887)

Close, No. 46 Saltmarket
from Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow

1868 - 1871

Thomas Annan is best known for his photographs of Glasgow's slum housing. His striking and often moving images, produced between 1868 and 1871, were made at the request of the City of Glasgow council, who commissioned Annan to make a record of the housing conditions in the old town, prior to their demolition as part of an urban improvement scheme.

Widely regarded as the first photographs of inner city slums, Annan's photographs were indicative of a growing public concern for the poor and dispossessed in society.

Recognition for the need for reform to help tackle the disease and ill health caused by overcrowding and insanitary living conditions in the cities was increasing, although not properly addressed until the Public Health Act of 1875.

Camera technology was also improving quickly. However, whilst photographing in narrow and very badly lit sites such as Glasgow's Old Closes was finally possible, exposure times remained lengthy and some degree of staging is evident in Annan's photographs, as is blurring, created by the movement of some subjects.

Closes were enclosed yards, accessed by long narrow lanes and often surrounded by tenements. In the background of this photograph stands a large tenement block, home to perhaps hundreds of people, with no running water or indoor sanitation. These damp, dirty, crime and disease-ridden blocks became infamous for their dreadful conditions and were generally considered as being amongst the worst slums in Britain. In this photograph several groups of children have been arranged to be photographed. Annan, a Victorian gentleman photographer complete with cumbersome equipment, would surely have been a peculiar visitor to the close, and as such, the object of children's curiosity. In this evocative image Annan demonstrates his skill with light and composition, balancing the scale of the foreboding tenement with groups of youthful inhabitants and other foreground details.
Ref Number:
2003-5001/2/23283

Creator
Henry Peach Robinson (1830–1901)

Bringing Home the May

1862

Henry Peach Robinson was an influential Victorian pictorialist photographer who specialised in combination printing. His photographic compositions were extremely popular and like Oscar Gustave Rejlander, he received Royal patronage in the form of direct sales to Prince Albert. Dedicated to promoting photography as an art form, Robinson created many elaborate photographs (or 'photographic paintings' as they have been called) from multiple negatives, the first of which was Fading Away, made using five negatives, in 1858.

A romantic and idealised representation of country life, Bringing Home the May, was Robinson's most ambitious photograph. It was created in 1862 using nine separate negatives, and the composition was built up through drawings and sketches to ensure consistency in perspective and scale. Models and costumes were hired and the individual images photographed over a period of several days, with light levels carefully monitored to ensure parity in the final piece.

Robinson was a founder member of the Linked Ring Brotherhood, an influential group of British pictorialist photographers, and an honorary member of the Royal Photographic Society from 1900. He was one of the most important art photographers of his day, and regarded himself as part of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, an avant-garde group of painters and poets whose members included Dante Gabriel Rosetti, John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt.
Ref Number:
1955-86/0590

Creator
Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904)

The Horse in Motion

1878

Originally acknowledged for his series of large photographs of Yosemite Valley, Eadweard Muybridge is now much better known for his motion studies of people and animals. In 1872 Muybridge was commissioned by the American politician, railroad tycoon and race horse owner Leland Stanford to photograph a horse in motion. Stanford aimed to resolve the question of the exact position of a horse’s legs during a gallop, and, specifically, whether all four hooves were off the ground simultaneously.

Muybridge developed a shutter mechanism which could achieve the speed of 1/500th of a second. Working with a battery of between 12 and 24 automatically-triggered cameras, Muybridge captured a series of split-second photographs of the horse as it passed in front of each lens. By 1877 Muybridge had answered Stanford’s question, and produced a photograph of a horse; mid-gallop and airborne.

From 1884 – 1887 Muybridge continued his studies, this time working with the University of Pennsylvania and a local zoo, and used his technique to photograph both animals and human beings in motion. The results of his studies – totalling 100,000 images presented as 781 plates, were published in 1887 in the landmark book Animal Locomotion.
Ref Number:
1987-5192

Creator
Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) 1832–1898

Reginald Southey and Skeletons

1857

Although known primarily as an author, and famous in particular for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1872), Lewis Carroll was also a mathematics lecturer at Oxford University, a Deacon at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and an accomplished photographer. Carroll, christened Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, practised photography for over 25 years, and photographed hundreds of sitters in his studio, at Christ Church College, Oxford.

This image shows Reginald Southey, Carroll's great friend and photographic teacher, with human and monkey skeletons and skulls. It appears to be a reference to the debates regarding Darwinism, and theories of evolution, which were raging at Oxford at the time. It may perhaps suggest Southey's intellectual position on the theory.

Carroll was an accomplished and well respected photographer whose skills were noted amongst his circle and beyond. His creativity, particularly evident through composition and camera angle, along with his technical skill, resulted in the production of many striking photographs, particularly during the 1860s.

Carroll's preferred photographic genre was portraiture and he is noted for his careful poses and groupings. Increasingly however, his favourite subjects were children, and in particular girls, whom he photographed regularly, sometimes in costume, and sometimes naked. Many questions and concerns have subsequently been raised regarding these photographs.
Ref Number:
2003-5001/2/23005

Creator
John Thomson (1837–1921)

Public Disinfectors
from Street Life In London

1877

John Thomson travelled and photographed widely in the Far East and notably in China throughout the 1860s and 1870s before returning to London to begin his most famous work, a collection of photographs which were published under the title Street Life in London. Thomson's photographs are now regarded as some of the earliest examples of social documentary photography and forerunners of the work of American photographers such as Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine.

Street Life in London was originally published in eleven instalments between 1876 and 1877, and was produced in collaboration with the writer Adolphe Smith. Later published in book form, the work aimed to document working class and poor inhabitants of London. Thomson and Smith wished, in part, to draw public attention to the desperate poverty suffered by many, despite the increasing wealth being created by developments in industry and mechanisation. They also aimed to create a portrait of Londoners which reflected the different levels of working class employment, including as in this example, public disinfectors. The industrious poor were pictured - flower sellers and chimney sweeps, for example, as were the dispossessed – the beggars and the homeless of the capital.

The increase in city dwelling brought about by the migration of the rural poor from the countryside, had led to desperate overcrowding in housing stock, and the widespread exploitation of tenants by unscrupulous slum landlords. Disease-ridden and dangerous, the areas inhabited by the poor had become infamous, and as a result, were rarely visited by middle class Victorians.

Thomson and Smith ventured into these 'no-go' areas and in turn created the voyeuristic interest required to guarantee an audience. Sometimes sensationalist, their work sat between an urge to document and a desire to campaign for social reform. Either way, it served to communicate the daily reality of the urban poor to an otherwise ignorant audience.
Ref Number:
2003-5001/2/23326

Creator
Frederick Evans (1853-1943)

Sea of Steps - Wells Cathedral: Stairs to the Chapter House

1903

Frederick Evans is regarded as one of the masters of pictorial photography and the creator of some of the finest architectural photographs.

He is best remembered for his exquisite photographs of the interiors of English and French cathedrals, which reflect his determination to achieve what he regarded as the perfect photograph. A Sea of Steps - Wells Cathedral: Stairs to the Chapter House is perhaps the best known example, showing the delicate and gradual play of natural light, as it falls on the complex interior space.

Evans ensured that every detail of the interiors he photographed was properly lit. He was an advocate of 'pure' photography and, unlike some pictorialists, opposed any alteration or manipulation of his negatives or prints. He was a perfectionist, primarily interested in the effects of light and shade and prepared to wait for long periods for the desired lighting conditions.

Evans also photographed landscapes and portraits, displaying the same sensitivity to line, form, space, texture and tone as in his architectural studies. He remained committed to using the platinum process throughout, which gave a rich tonal quality suited to his style.
Ref Number:
2003-5001/2/21472

Creator
Peter Henry Emerson (1856–1936)

Gathering Water-Lilies

1886

In 1886 Peter Henry Emerson began photographing the people and landscape of the Norfolk Broads, a complex of rivers and lakes in East Anglia. In the context of increasing industrialisation and developing tourism, traditional ways of life in Norfolk were disappearing as more people began to drift to the cities. Emerson feared that the old ways of life and traditional farming methods would soon be lost and that the increasing mechanisation of agriculture would hasten this change. In the hope of helping to preserve some of the older traditions, he began his photographic project Life and Landscape of the Norfolk Broads.

Emerson photographed people at work on the land, and out on the water. A range of trades were recorded, including farm labourers, game keepers and fishermen. Emerson's photographs were stylised and idealised however, and many have argued that they do not reflect the hardships experienced by the majority of rural labourers.

Emerson also photographed large empty landscapes and was particularly interested in the differing qualities of light, often choosing to photograph at dawn or dusk. He argued that photographs should not be too sharply, or too softly, focussed, stating that his pictures would, as far as possible, align with human eyesight. He called his choice of focus 'naturalistic' and in 1889 published Naturalistic Photography, a paper which explained his ideas.

Emerson's first publication was Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads, which was published in 1886. Illustrated with platinum prints, the book was hugely successful. This photograph, Gathering Water-Lilies, is perhaps his most well-known image. Although depicting an idyllic and relaxing scene, the photograph actually shows a couple at work – they are fishing and using water-lily flowers as bait. The photograph is a romanticised version of work however, reflecting Emerson’s feelings of nostalgia for the countryside, and his intention to protect and preserve its traditions.
Ref Number:
1990-5037-P73

Creator
Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946)

The Steerage

1907

Alfred Stieglitz was an influential American photographer who played a major part in developing a new, modern aesthetic for photography in the early 1900s. Initially involved in Pictorialism, a late 19th Century movement which promoted photography as an art form, Stieglitz later became a key player in the development of the modern art movement which profoundly affected the practise of photography, in both Europe and the US.

Stieglitz founded and edited the influential photography magazine Camera Work from 1902-17, and founded the Little Galleries of Photo-Secession at 291 Fifth Avenue in New York. Stieglitz also later established another gallery in the same premises, which was known simply as '291'.

This photograph, The Steerage, was a turning point for Stieglitz in his move towards a modern aesthetic as his work started to become more closely aligned with photography's inherent qualities. Sharp focus, good contrast and full range of tones became important to Stieglitz, and these concerns replaced the fuzzy lines and dappled surfaces favoured by the Pictorialists. This change of emphasis became known as 'Straight Photography'.

Modernist subjects were the everyday symbols of modern life - machines, urbanisation and the city, for example. Modern concerns such as line shape and tone also became important. The Steerage, with the striking graphic of the gangplank cutting the composition in two, shows a society which is economically divided – those that can afford to be accommodated on deck – and those who have to settle for the steerage below.
Ref Number:
1991-5076/44

Creator
Lewis Hine (1874–1940)

Ellis Island Italian Madonna

1905

Lewis Hine was an influential American photographer, best remembered for the contribution he made to the reform of the American child labour laws. He is also known for the work he undertook on behalf of the National Child Labour Committee, which aimed to help protect children from exploitation and danger in the workplace. Originally trained as a sociologist, Hine's first photographic project was to document European immigrants newly arrived at Ellis Island, New York. Always photographing his subjects with dignity, Hine was able to communicate a sense of individuality about the immigrants, and to challenge some of the unfounded prejudice which they faced.

Regarded as an important early social documentary photographer, Hine's work crosses genre distinctions, and operates effectively both as impactful documentary and dignified portraiture. Hine’s twin requirements for his photographs ensure that his work operates in a wide range of social and cultural contexts, and remains an effective representation of the human condition.

This image, an iconic and evocative mother and child image, portrays the uncertainty of arriving in a strange land, and a mother's need to ensure the safety of her child. These people were amongst the hundreds to arrive at Ellis Island that day – and one of thousands that arrived in the early years of the new century, looking for a better life in a new country. Hine’s determination of depict their individualism however, is unwavering.
Ref Number:
1990-5131/10008

Creator
Edward Steichen (1879–1973)

Gloria Swanson (lace)

1924

Edward Steichen was born in Luxembourg in 1879. He emigrated to America whilst still a baby and became a naturalised US citizen at the turn of the century. A successful and diverse photographer, Steichen worked for various influential publications including Vogue and Vanity Fair, as well as the Photographic Division of the US Expeditionary Forces and the Naval Photographic Institute, both of which he directed during WW1.

Steichen is known in particular for his collaboration with Alfred Stieglitz at the 291 Gallery, his founder-membership of the Photo–Secessionist movement, and his directorship of the Photographic Department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1955, at MOMA, Steichen organised The Family of Man exhibition, now regarded as one of the most important exhibitions in photography’s history.

Early in his career Steichen was associated with pictorialism and its soft focus style, although he gradually abandoned this in favour of 'straight' photography. Straight photography was aligned with Modernism, a movement which at the time was gaining ground, particularly in Europe, and favoured clean lines, clear compositions and an overall sense of design.

This glamorous photograph, taken in by Steichen 1924, is one of a collection of celebrity portraits commissioned by Vanity Fair magazine in the 1920s. At once chic and elegant, Swanson boldly gazes at the viewer. Swanson's power is accentuated by the directness of Steichen's portrait, and his use of the lace's pattern to frame her lips and chin.
Ref Number:
2003-5001/2/23275

Creator
Edward Weston (1886–1958)

Nude

1936

Edward Weston was an influential American photographer, famous for his precise and detailed work. In 1932 he was a founder member of Group f64, along with Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham. These photographers favoured clarity of approach and long depth of field, both achieved through the use of a very small aperture lens setting and f64 is a reference to this.

Initially a pictorialist, Weston was central to the development of modern photography in America during the 1920s. His interest in surface pattern, detail and precise composition was influential, as was his book America and Photography, published in 1929. Amongst Weston's favourite subjects were nudes, sand dunes and everyday natural objects, which enabled him to concentrate on the form of the object, and the available tonal range.

Weston was experimental, particularly with camera angles and lighting techniques. Sometimes he abstracted his subjects by taking them out of context and photographing them against neutral backgrounds. In this way, and as with this example, Weston's subjects took on new and unique identities - meticulously detailed, but ultimately unfamiliar. In this elegant photograph we can see evidence of his experimental approach, through the unconventional placing of both the model and camera.
Ref Number:
2003-5001/2/21806

Creator
Paul Strand (1890–1976)

The White Fence, Port Kent, N.Y.

1916

One of the most influential photographers in the history of photography, Paul Strand was a pioneer of American modernism. After an early career as a pictorialist, and having studied photography under Lewis Hine, Strand developed a sharply-focussed style which he used to create abstracted, modernist compositions. Championed by Alfred Stieglitz, Strand's work was featured in the last two issues of Camera Work in 1917. This image, The White Fence, Port Kent, N.Y. dating from 1916, illustrates Strand’s interest in the functional and the everyday, as well as his fascination with orderly pattern. A fence, a collection of white verticals, is shown in the foreground, behind which a barn and house can be seen. The startling composition broke new ground in photography, as did the stark graphic shapes and extraordinary use of light and shade. Strand has added drama and intensity to an otherwise ordinary scene.

Strand's rich tones and pronounced interest in light, shadow, pattern and texture influenced a generation of modernist photographers, in particular, photographers such as Edward Weston. His images of the city illustrate his growing interest in modernism, and feature patterns created by repeated horizontals and verticals. Much of his work heralds photographs yet to come, particularly from key photographers such as Berenice Abbott and Margaret Bourke-White.
Ref Number:
2003-5001/2/21730

Creator
Madame Yevonde (1893–1975)

Mrs. Meyer as Medusa
from The Goddesses Series

1935

Madame Yevonde, born Yevonde Cumbers and later becoming Yevonde Middleton, was a well-known society portrait photographer. She is best remembered for her experimental work with early colour, and, in particular, her use of the Vivex process. Her distinctive and highly creative portrait style earned her much praise and she quickly gained advertising commissions and other commercial work.

In 1914 Yevonde set up her first portrait studio, although she did not begin her work with colour until the early 1930s. Her move into colour was bold, as colour photography was still generally regarded as unnatural and brash by the majority of the general public at the time. Her theatrical, stylised approach won much acclaim and by the mid 1930s she was able to secure contracts from large and established companies.

In 1935 she began work on The Goddesses series, from which this image is drawn. The Goddesses is a collection of portraits of society ladies dressed as figures from classical mythology, which not only became her tour-de-force, but changed the fortunes of colour photography by popularising its use. This glamorous, exciting and original series for which she organised the costumes, sitters, poses and props was an instant success when exhibited in the summer of 1935, in Berkeley Square, London.
Ref Number:
1991-5077/69

Creator
Dorothea Lange (1895–1965)

Migrant Mother Nipomo, California

1936

Dorothea Lange was one of the most influential documentary photographers of the twentieth century. Along with Walker Evans, Lange worked for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) during the Great Depression in 1930s America. The FSA was established to help combat rural poverty, and the photographs Lange and Evans produced helped to bring the plight of poor and disposed farm workers and their families to public attention. Lange’s photograph Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California is the seminal image from the period, and an icon of the era.

The tightly-composed, highly-concentrated composition is a powerful and empathic portrayal of the human tragedy brought about by the economic collapse. It has become one of the world’s most reproduced photographic images, its emotional impact resting on a universal understanding of the mother and child relationship, and the commonality of experience between human beings.
Ref Number:
2003-5001/2/20573

Creator
Ansel Adams (1902-1984)

Moonrise, Hernandez

1941

Ansel Adams is generally regarded as one of the most important landscape photographers of the 20th century. He is perhaps best known for his dramatic photographs of mountain ranges, deserts, rivers, river valleys and other areas of wilderness in the American West. Adams' work concentrates particularly on national parks, and is contextualised by his strong commitment to the conservation movement.

Adams was influenced by Paul Strand, whose sharply-focussed photographic technique represented a move away from an earlier 'pictorial' style. Strand called his technique 'straight' photography and Adams became an enthusiastic advocate.

In 1932 Adams co-founded Group f/64, along with Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham. Together they championed the idea of 'straight' photography - technical photographic perfection and the production of flawless prints without any darkroom or in-camera manipulation.

This dramatic scene, which communicates a sense of awe at the grandeur of nature, is divided into thirds. Adams has emphasised the scale and natural drama of the landscape by portraying it as a monumental wilderness, complete with distant peaks and a small settlement in the foreground. The composition is exemplary - with the white of the clouds contrasted against the vast black sky and the reflection on the gravestones gleaming white. The moon floats above the scene and the tiny rural settlement is dwarfed by its majestic surroundings.
Ref Number:
1991-5066/30

Creator
Dr Harold (Eugene) Edgerton (1903–1990)
© Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Queen of Hearts playing card hit by a .30 calibre bullet

1970

Dr Harold Edgerton is famous for his split second photographs which reveal actions too fast for the human eye to see.

Edgerton was the first photographer to use stroboscopic lighting to capture rapid movement. As a result he became famous for his dramatic photographs of falling milk drops and speeding bullets. He found that the stroboscope could illuminate a subject through repeated and rapid bursts of light and his photographs, popular with the public, offered views of high speed motion for the first time.
Ref Number:
1991-5099/2

Creator
Horst P. Horst (1906–1999)

Carmen Face Massage

1946

Horst P. Horst was one of the most influential fashion photographers of the twentieth century. Mostly remembered for his work with Vogue during the 1930s and 40s Horst's career spanned sixty years and his name became synonymous with dramatic lighting, classical styling, elegance and romance. He is regarded as a master of light and shadow, and is noted for his bold, experimental approach.

Horst began his association with Vogue in 1931 when his first photograph was published in the French edition. He met Cecil Beaton, another influential fashion photographer the same year, and in 1932 began photographing a list of celebrities, which helped to establish his work further.

Horst's modernist compositions, which were sometimes abstracted, represented a major development in fashion photography. Horst's interest in classical imagery and poses can be seen in this photograph, which also demonstrates surrealist influences.
Ref Number:
1992-5005/019

Creator
George Rodger (1908–1995)

The Wrestlers, Kordofan, Sudan

1949

George Rodger, a British photojournalist, is known primarily for his shocking photographs of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and for his role in the establishment of the influential agency, Magnum Photos.

Rodger is also known for the photographs he took in Africa in the years immediately after World War Two. This photograph, of two wrestlers, was taken in the Nuba Mountains, in Kordofan, central Sudan, whilst Rodger was working for National Geographic magazine.

The large and unique documentary project, of which this image is a part, was produced by Rodger in 1949, during a six week period in which he lived amongst the tribespeople, photographing their daily lives, rituals and routines. The Nuba were hard to reach, and Rodger had a difficult trek in order to find them. It was a controversial project however, as Roger's photographs ultimately brought them the unwelcome attention which eventually destroyed their traditional way of life.

The photographs themselves preserve the dignity of the tribesmen and avoid any recourse to sensationalism or voyeurism. Placing himself as observer rather than interpreter, Rodger produced a sensitive portrait of the tribe. This image was included in Edward Steichen’s 1955 MOMA exhibition The Family of Man.
Ref Number:
1983-5226

Creator
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004)

Dessau, Germany

1945

Henri Cartier-Bresson is one of the most renowned figures in the history of photography. He is known in particular for his photographs of French society and his distinctive 'street style' approach to documentary photography, as well as for being a co-founder of the prestigious photographic agency Magnum Photos. Cartier-Bresson recorded many of the 'little moments' in everyday life, often capturing subjects absorbed in activity, however minimal or idiosyncratic that action may have been. His fascination with society and close observation technique helped him to identify the 'decisive moment' in order to create meaningful glimpses of society.

Cartier-Bresson's famed 'decisive moment' referred to the point at which the action and aesthetic blended, to create the most impactful and visually effective representation of a scene.

Cartier-Bresson took this photograph in 1945 at a transit camp in Dessau, Germany. Transit camps were used to temporarily house refugees, political prisoners and prisoners of war shortly after liberation by the Allies. This image records the moment at which a Gestapo informer is recognised and exposed by a young Belgian woman.
Ref Number:
1988-5055/06

Creator
Humphrey Spender (1910–2005)

Townswomen Dressed for Market

1937-38

Humphrey Spender was a British photographer who worked for Picture Post magazine and the Daily Mirror newspaper during the 1930s. Working under the name 'Lensman' Spender also worked for the Mass Observation team from 1937 onwards. Helped in part by the new, smaller cameras, Spender became famous for his ability to maintain a low profile, and photograph scenes with minimal disruption.

Mass Observation was an anthropological project, founded in 1937, which set out to study the lives of the people in the town of Bolton, Lancashire. Known as the 'Worktown Project', a team of paid investigators went into a variety of public situations: meetings, religious services, sporting and leisure activities, in the street and at work, and recorded people's behaviour and conversation in as much detail as possible. The material they produced is a varied documentary account of life in Britain. Mass Observation continued until the 1950s and has since been awarded 'Designated' status by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, in recognition of its outstanding national and international importance.
Ref Number:
2003-5001/2/20546

Creator
Larry Burrows (1926–1971)

South of the DMZ, South Vietnam

1966

British war photographer, Larry Burrows, is famous for his dramatic and deeply moving colour images of the Vietnam War.

Taken from a series of photographs covering Operation Prairie in 1966, this famous image shows a black sergeant reaching out towards his white fellow soldier, who is also wounded. The image is seen as a profound statement of the futility of war, not simply for the destruction and the mud, but also for the equality of the suffering it portrays.

Burrows was remarkable for his use of colour photography. Most documentary images were being taken in black and white at this time, with colour still the preserve of advertising photographers. Burrows' use of colour was a significant and bold departure. Colour accentuated the harrowing quality of the subject matter, despite its reputation for undermining the gravitas of an image.

Burrows' tableaux-like photographs are reminiscent of paintings and show his interests in composition and the placement of figures. Working for Life magazine at the time, Burrows enjoyed the luxury of working without deadlines or briefs, and enjoyed the freedom to experiment, and build ideas.

Tragically, Burrows died in a helicopter crash with three other photographers, whilst covering the conflict in 1971.
Ref Number:
1994-5015/1

Creator
Fay Godwin (1931–2005)

Heptonstall backlit, Yorkshire

1978

Fay Godwin is regarded as one of Britain's finest landscape photographers. She is known for her black and white photographs which reflect the diverse and changing nature of the British landscape and is seen as possessing a special ability to portray the essential characteristics of land, sea and sky. Often her work has drawn attention to the detrimental effect that past and present generations of people have had on the natural environment, which she increasingly portrayed as polluted and inaccessible.

Sensitive, subtly political and unsentimental, her work was published in several books, the most influential of which was Land in 1985. Land featured work taken over a ten year period and included many photographs taken whilst Godwin was in receipt of a major Arts Council grant, awarded in 1978.

Godwin was awarded the Bradford Fellowship in 1987, a fellowship hosted jointly by the National Media Museum, Bradford College and the University of Bradford. During the fellowship, Godwin experimented with colour photography, and the culmination was the exhibition 'Bradford in Colour'.

A subsequent book, Our Forbidden Land was published in 1990. In it, Godwin focussed on the environmental damage caused by road builders, developers, the forestry industry and the Ministry of Defence.

This photograph, Heptonstall backlit, Yorkshire 1978, illustrates her masterful use of light and shade and striking compositional ability. This, along with a full range of mid-tones creates an evocative scene and emphasises the enormity of the Yorkshire landscape.
Ref Number:
1984-5030

Creator
Don McCullin (1935-present)
© Don McCullin / Contact / nbpictures

Bradford

1970s

Don McCullin is a British photojournalist with an international reputation for hard hitting photographs taken in war-zones and other areas of conflict. From 1966 to 1984 he worked with the Sunday Times Magazine and covered various nationally and internationally important events, including the Vietnam War, the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the African HIV / Aids epidemic.

McCullin is also known for his compassionate and powerful photographs of unemployed and impoverished members of British society. The photographs, taken over a 50 year period, bear witness to McCullin's anger at a system in which some people are obliged to live with acute poverty and deprivation. Taken from two of his books Homecoming (1979) and In England (2007) an exhibition of McCullin's work from Britain was shown at the National Media Museum in summer 2009. Exhibited under the same title as the book In England, the exhibition contained many images taken in Bradford in the 1970s. Shocked by the hardships and distress he found in the city, McCullin produced a series of images which still resonate today. This photograph, simply titled Bradford is a testament to the longevity of the social and racial troubles which the city still endures.

Living and working in Somerset, McCullin now concentrates on landscape photography. His most recent book, Southern Frontiers: A Journey Across the Roman Empire has just been published.
Ref Number:
1993-5016/0092

Creator
Tony Ray-Jones (1941–1972)

Beachy Head Tripper Boat

1967

British photographer Tony Ray-Jones is best known for his project 'A Day Off' portraying the English way of life. Fascinated by the quirks and idiosyncrasies of life, Ray-Jones' photographs are imbued with warmth and humour as people are caught relaxing and off-guard.

Ray-Jones' work sits within a larger tradition of photographs of Britons at leisure which starts with Sir Benjamin Stone in the nineteenth century, and includes names such as Paul Martin and Homer Sykes. Ray-Jones' unique compositions have in turn, influenced a later generation of photographers, notably Chris Killip and Martin Parr.

Tony Ray-Jones was born in 1941 and spent his childhood in London. After an initial period at the London School of Printing, Ray-Jones moved to America, to study photography at Yale University. At Yale, he found that the subject was taken seriously as an art form and as a tool for personal artistic expression. Whilst in America he met and found inspiration from a range of influential practitioners including the designer Alexey Brodovitch and photographers Joel Meyerowitz and Garry Winogrand. Through them he was introduced to the still relatively new form of art photography known as 'street' photography which had a profound effect on his practise. Upon his return to the UK, Ray-Jones began to use a similar approach to document the English at leisure, and developed a particular interest in the English seaside.

He returned to the United States in 1971 to teach photography but shortly afterwards was diagnosed with leukaemia. Tragically, Ray-Jones died in 1972, at the age of 31.
Ref Number:
1987-5173/16

Creator
Chris Killip (1946-present)

Youth on Wall, Jarrow, Tyneside

1976

Chris Killip is known for his powerful and moving black and white photographs which chronicle industrial decline in the north east of England in the late 1970s and 1980s.

The series from which this photograph is drawn was published in book form under the title, In Flagrante, in 1988. In Flagrante has been described as one of the most important photography books of the 1980s, on account of the impactful and resonant nature of the photographs. It is generally regarded as an important record of life in the north east of England during the Thatcher years. Characterised by high levels of unemployment brought on by policies of de-industrialisation, the period was a dramatic era in social history. An acute sense of melancholy pervades Killip's photographs which are careful personal observations, rather than calls to action. Killip's work helped to establish the now familiar tradition of documentary photography located in the context of fine art.
Ref Number:
2010-5010/1

Creator
John Davies (1949-present)

Agecroft Power Station, Salford 1983

1983

John Davies is one of Britain's most well known photographers, and is famous for his striking black and white landscape images. Interested in both urban and rural landscapes, he is a prolific photographer whose work commands international recognition.

Davies has often been described as a political photographer as he is keen to record the effects of industrialisation on the landscape. Incongruous elements are often present in his work – industrial buildings in rural settings, for example, or ancient buildings flanked by flyovers to emphasise change of use and the effect of development. In this photograph, the landscape is dominated by the colliery and its close neighbour the power station, whose four huge cooling towers occupy the middle distance. Behind the towers we see the evidence of the transformation of coal to electricity - the pylons.

Taken during the Thatcher era in British politics, and only a year before Agecroft miners participated in the National Union of Mineworkers strike in 1984/5, this photograph shows the effect of the industry on the landscape. In the foreground are typical Sunday league football pitches, and adjacent is detritus - abandoned cars and other litter. A tethered horse completes the melancholic scene.
Ref Number:
2003-5025/1

Creator
Martin Parr (1952-present)

From The Last Resort

1985

Martin Parr is one of Britain's most influential and well-known photographers. Prolific and successful, Parr is famous for his unorthodox and often humorous style and his interest in mass tourism, consumerism and globalisation. His work is often received with ambivalence, as it seems to display many criticisms of England and the English.

A member of Magnum Photos, Parr works with brash colour to portray a world apparently full of vulgarity and wastefulness. His first large scale project was The Last Resort, a series of photographs of the run-down seaside resort of New Brighton on the Wirral. Published as a book in 1986, and exhibited widely, The Last Resort brought him notoriety for its shocking portrayal of modern society, expressed through garish colour. The Last Resort is an uncompromising project which cast a long shadow over Thatcher's Britain and prompted questions about the depth of the divides within British society. This photograph, drawn from the series, shows two small children with ice creams, which dribble down their hands, faces and clothes. Their messy demeanour implies careless and neglectful parenting, and this is emphasised by their position, alone on the kerb.
Ref Number:
1984-5204/1

Creator
Paul Graham (1956-present)
© Paul Graham

Woman in Headscarf, DHSS Waiting Room, Bristol
from the series Beyond Caring

1984

Paul Graham is one of the most influential photographers in Britain, and is best known in particular for his ground-breaking colour documentary work in the 1980s. His series Beyond Caring, from which this image is drawn, was published in book form in 1985 and depicts the offices of the Department of Health and Social Security. The great theme of the decade, particularly in the north of England, was poverty and de-industrialisation, with the dismantling of the mining industry and resultant strikes called by the National Union of Mineworkers, the dominant story.

Graham was the first person to use colour whilst working in the established genre of social documentary photography. Until this time, documentary photography had been dominated by black and white, with colour mainly confined to advertising and domestic work. Graham's use of colour social documentary photography as a tool for personal expression transformed British photography and remains influential today.
Ref Number:
1992-5034

Creator
Nick Knight (1958-present)

Suzie Smoking

1988

Nick Knight is an internationally celebrated British fashion photographer. He is known for the challenges he made to conventional ideals of beauty and for the work he undertook for magazine titles such as British Vogue, Paris Vogue, Dazed and Confused and i-D, where he worked for ten years as the picture editor.

Knight has published several books of his photographs, and been featured by various prestigious institutions such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Saatchi Gallery, Tate Modern, The Photographers Gallery, the Hayward Gallery and the Natural History Museum. He has produced campaigns for many prominent fashion houses including Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent and in 2000 he set up the award winning fashion website SHOWstudio.

This image Suzie Smoking was shot for the avant-garde Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto, in 1988. Featuring the model Suzie Bick, the photograph was exhibited widely and notably, was shown in the exhibition Out Of Fashion, at the Photographers Gallery, London, in 1989.
Ref Number:
1992-5092

Creator
Anna Fox (1961-present)

From Friendly Fire

1989-94

Anna Fox came to prominence during the 1980s when she began producing colour photographs in a style which became known as subjective documentary. Influenced by the new colour work that had begun to be produced in the US in the 1970s and in Britain in the 1980s, Fox's first project Workstations: Office Life in London from 1988, chronicled office culture during the time that Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister. Characterised by harsh flash, and accompanied by satirical captions, this project was a critical look at the aggressive and competitive work politics of the 1980s and was produced in the context of other important documentarists from the period, including Paul Graham, Tom Hunter and Martin Parr.

Friendly Fire, a subsequent project, was undertaken from 1989 – 1994 and documented paint-balling and other weekend war games. The photographs feature a variety of locations, some in and some outdoors and again, are characterised by brash flashlight which heightens the sense of irony in the work. In role herself as war photographer, Fox satirises the motives of the participants as they attempt to foster team spirit through mock battle.
Ref Number:
2004-5052

Creator
Luc Delahaye (1962-present)

Kabul Road

2001

Luc Delahaye is an internationally recognised photographer, known primarily for his series of photographs History. Representing sites of war and their aftermath, History is a series of monumentally-sized panoramic photographs which use the conventions of painting to present a subject matter conventional to photojournalists.

Precise and detailed, these images, created with a panoramic camera and reproduced on a grand scale, exude a formality and gravitas normally only associated with history paintings. Part of their resonance results from their ability to provide a view of war which significantly different from the usual images created by the mainstream media, as this image, Kabul Road demonstrates.
Ref Number:
2007-5015/25

Creator
Simon Norfolk (1963-present)

From Afghanistan: Chronotopia

2001-02

Simon Norfolk is known for his large scale colour photographs of the aftermath of wars. Ruined landscapes, buildings and local communities are typical themes, as Norfolk surveys the desolation left behind after conflict. This photograph is taken from one of his most important series – Afghanistan: Chronotopia, and shows a balloon seller, standing in front of a former teahouse in Kabul.

The war in Afghanistan has left an unfamiliar landscape in its wake and many residents living amongst ruined buildings. Norfolk produces beautiful and detailed images, often bathed in rich sunlight and sometimes including distant mountain ranges, which emphasise the scale and history of the land.

Romantic history painters of the eighteenth and nineteenth century are referenced in Simon Norfolk's photographs, through the dramatic skies, the colours and the scale of the works. The ruined landscape has been aestheticised – perhaps a memorial to what has been destroyed.

Here, the shape of the building is emphasised by the camera's low viewpoint, and its outline is almost silhouetted against the sky. The muted colour palette focuses attention on the balloons, which, in their turn, become peculiar representations of mainstream popular culture.
Ref Number:
1998-5127

Creator
Hannah Starkey (1971-present)

Untitled

2007

Courtesy Maureen Paley, London

Hannah Starkey creates large, staged photographs which invite the viewer to speculate about the thoughts and intentions of their subjects. The enigmatic colour photographs act as dramas, often quiet and subtle, hinting at some unspoken occurrence, known only to the characters. The viewer is drawn in and encouraged to participate and hypothesize.

In Starkey's large scale tableaux the subjects, usually women, are engaged in some mysterious scenario. They seem to suggest that we have stumbled across the scene by accident, so the context and the narrative remain elusive.

In this photograph, the main character seems to have been caught unawares, mid day-dream, contemplating a moth which has come to rest on the large mirror. She appears to be in her own world, oblivious to the presence of an older woman, who sits on a different table, watching her with apparent and unexplained malevolence.
Ref Number:
1997-5224

Creator
Richard Billingham (1970-present)
© Richard Billingham

Untitled

1995

Richard Billingham was born in Birmingham in 1970. He came to prominence through the photographs he took of his family, who lived in a tower block in the city. The photographs were published in 1996 in a book called Ray's A Laugh, and depicted the chaotic lives of his alcoholic father Ray, his mother Liz and younger brother Jason.

The brashly-coloured and badly-focused photographs were shot using a cheap 35mm camera, and made initially as studies for paintings whilst Billingham was studying fine art at the University of Sunderland. The remarkably frank images, reminiscent of family snapshots, depict a life of poverty, but are tempered by moments of intimacy between Liz and Ray. In this photograph, which is both humorous and desperate, the family's pet cat is thrown across the room by Ray.

Part photo-diary and part colour documentary for the gallery, Ray's A Laugh has received international acclaim and notoriety. It has been exhibited at many venues including the National Media Museum (1996) and the famous Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1997. Billingham won the prestigious Citigroup Photography Prize in 1997 and was shortlisted for the Turner prize in 2001.

Forty photographs have been selected from the National Photography Collection to give an overview of the history and development of photography in the West. From Fox Talbot's earliest calotypes to Richard Billingham's Untitled (Flying Cat), these photographs provide a fascinating glimpse at this diverse subject. The selection features key images drawn from our holdings of mainly British photographers. Each photograph is accompanied by some background information about the photographer and the image.

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