A 100 Year History of Portrait Photography and the Provincial Photographic Studio
By Graham Thomas
- Release Date: 2025-10-06
- Genre: Photography
Description
Portrait photography immediately became the mainstay of the commercial photographic business. It was the core money-making idea behind photographic studios being established in the early 1840s. Yet little up-to-date and accurate information has been written about the emergence and then the development of the commercial photography business, even less about those who operated outside of the major urban centres (read London), and instead were based in the provinces. This is surprising since a number of these local photographers had a significant impact. Just one example: the first portraits of royalty were not taken in London but in Brighton. This led to the Royal Family taking a keen interest in photography which, in turn, helped boost its acceptance and popularity. A second would be the work of H P Robinson working in Leamington Spa (an example of his work is shown at the start of this chapter). A third would be the emergence of colour photography which was championed by a Stroud-based photographer.
