Category: PHOTOGRAPHY

ALBUMAN PRINT: “Fading away” by Henry Peach Robinson

‘Fading Away’

This is the famous work “Fading Away” by Henry Peach Robinson. He took 5 different negatives and put them together to form one stunning photo of a girl dying surrounded by family. It was highly controversial. Many critics complained that it was essentially a fake, whilst others bitterly attacked the intrusive nature of the photo on the intimate moment of family death. This criticism was somewhat unfair since Robinson was creating a composite photo and therefore wasn’t intruding at all. The work was highly commercially successful, and illustrated Robinson’s desire to create art using photographs, rather than just using photos to document real things. “Fading Away” was highly approved by Prince Albert, who bought copies.

A similar, early work “She never told her love” seems to have been used as the study for the dying girl in the centre of “Fading Away”

Henry Peach Robinson

ALBUMAN SILVER PRINT: Portal of the Temple of Khonsu, Karnak Théodule Devéria

Portal of the Temple of Khonsu at Karnak, Egypt. Photo by Theodule Deveria circa 1859

Deveria was a noted photographer and cataloguer of French Egyptology. He was vital in a key expedition with Auguste Mariette in 1859 which excavated Karnak.

Daguerreotype “Peasant Woman & Child” Félix Jacques Moulin

Peasant woman with children: photographer Felix Jacque Moulin 1855

Moulin was, like Braquehais mostly known for his female nudes. These were called Academies and used for artists. Moulin skated the line with pornography and was jailed for a month for the possession and sale of obscene objects. He was released and continued his photographic career. He travelled and took photo’s, as well as photographing domestic French scenes. This scene is interesting as an illustration of French female working class dress. From the pigeon’s and mess it is likely that it really was an outdoor photo, rather than staged indoors.

Daguerreotype “Standing Female Nude in Diaphanous Gown”


Standing Female Nude in Diaphanous Gown (photo by Bruno Braquehais) 1854

This is one of many of Bruno Braquehais’s female nudes, which were used as still life’s for artists in place of live models. It was intended for art classes and would not have been viewed as pornographic. It was probably colourised by his wife Laurie.

Daguerreotype Prince Albert 1842

Prince Albert 1842

This Daguerreotype was taken at a studio in Brighton. The photographer was probably William Constable, working under a daguerreotype license from Richard Beard. It is extremely faded, and would have been far sharper when first taken. It was the first photo of a member of royalty in world history, and underlined Prince Albert’s fascination with modernisation.