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P.H.Emerson and Photography 1885 -1895: The Old Order and the New. 13 October - 4 February 2007
A Fisherman at Home, 1887, Peter Henry Emerson

The Fetters of Winter, Marsh Leaves, 1895,
Peter Henry Emerson, The Royal Photograhic Society Collection
at The National Museum of Photography, Film and Television

The Lure of the Overlooked


Art photographers, like artists, were actively seeking marshes, wide expanses of water, and big blank skies. They were attracted to overlooked or almost empty landscapes, often seen in winter or autumn or at dawn or dusk. When they took photographs, they were looking for signs of emptiness, or rather solitude, in a crowded country. Those images of emptiness were not signs of a bleak outlook but of their individual and adventurous spirits.