"If you will condescend yourself to learn to write beautifully and to to engrave clearly you will soon cease to indulge in the arts of idleness."
It will perhaps not surprise you to learn that by "the arts of idleness" he meant photography. I still have this letter and a wry smile crosses my face every time I read it.
Peter Henry Emerson (1856-1936) was born in Cuba the son of a wealthy sugar plantation owner.
Having moved to England in 1869 he studied medicine at Kings College,London and at Cambridge University but abandoned the medical profession in the 1880s to pursue his passion for photography.
His love of nature and the naturalistic style which he used in his photographic record Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads (1886) and other publications led him into vociferous and public opposition with other more contrived Victorian photoraphers such as Henry Peach Robinson. In 1889 he published Naturalistic Photography a theoretical work of historic importance in the early days of photography.
Barely two years later, however, Emerson recanted his view that photography was an art.This was based on experiments in sensitometry -the precursor to the light meter- which implied to him that photography was purely mechanistic. Dramatically he published a new treatise in a pamphlet with black borders entitled The Death of Naturalistic Photography in 1891.
His life and work is currently being celebrated in two exhibitions: the first at the National Media Museum which transfers to The Getty in March 2007. There is also an accompanying new book The Old Order & The New to which I wrote the introduction. More of his work can be seen at George Eastman House International Museum of Photography & Film
This website also contains an on-line picture library of London photography and London stock shots.This London picture library includes London photographs of classic London scenes such as Big Ben,London Bridge, Tower Bridge and Buckingham Palace as well as more creative and dynamic London images. London photographs are also available on a commission basis but at stock-shot prices as London photography endeavours to fill holes in our catalogue of London photographs. Whatevever your need, London Photography will strive to get you the London stock shot you require.
On this site click on "People" to find an on-line picture library of famous people and celebrities especially authors,playrights and scientists. Many of these have been exhibited at The National Portrait Gallery in London.To find out more about this, click on "About us"
Photographic services include advertising photography, corporate photography, digital photography, digital imaging,annual reports,publicity,travel photography, PR, public relations,commercial photography, industrial photography, executive portraits, catalogues,brochures,colour transparencies,prints,bromides,platinum prints,lith prints,selenium prints,gold toning,negatives,digital manipulation,retouching,color,Black & White,(B&W), website design,web development.
The images on this site may be used as "positionals" in layouts for visualisation purposes. However any other usage (including usage on the web) will require the granting of a license by the photographer Stephen Hyde.
All copyrights remain with the photographer Stephen Hyde for the photographic images on this site (www.londonphotography.co.uk)