Photography News

January 27, 2015 /Photography News/ Born 183 years ago on 27 January 1832, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was an English writer, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer.

From today’s perspective, his most notable career is that of writing, as it cemented his pen name in pop culture: Lewis Carroll. But only acknowledging his literary accomplishments would do him a grave injustice.

In the days when photography was just starting to establish itself as an art form, Dodgson took notice of the extremely precise and mathematical aspects of it. Influenced by his uncle Skeffington Lutwidge and his friend Reginald Southey, he picked up the hobby and - as with just about everything he tried in his life - he excelled almost immediately.

Throughout his 24-year career as a photographer he became a master of the medium, boasting a portfolio of roughly 3,000 images and his very own studio. His subjects were most often people, although he also photographed landscapes, dolls, dogs, statues, paintings, trees and even skeletons, as seen above.

From the 3000+ photographs taken by Dodgson, only 1000 have survived due to the passage of time and deliberate destruction, of which just over half are of children (mostly young girls) - 30 of whom are depicted nude or semi-nude.

His affection for younger girls, many of whom inspired the stories he wrote, has led many to conclude that Dodgson may very well have been paedophilic in nature, including Morton N. Cohen in his Lewis Carroll: A Biography (1995), Donald Thomas in his Lewis Carroll: A Portrait with Background (1995), and Michael Bakewell in his Lewis Carroll: A Biography (1996).

Most famously, Carroll obsessively photographed the young Alice Liddell, daughter of family friend Henry George Liddell and inspiration for Carroll’s most famous fictional character.

Carroll’s carefully staged child photographs are very much like those of other photographers of the period like Mary Cowden Clarke and Julia Margaret Cameron, who also photographed Alice Liddell, even into her adulthood.

Below are a few more photographs from Lewis Carroll's collection:

January 26, 2015 /Photography News/  Celebrated annually on 26 January, Australia Day (previously known as Anniversary Day, Foundation Day, and ANA Day) commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788 and the proclamation at that time of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of New Holland.

The collection below is a photographic record of the people, places and events of Sydney after 1870, highlighting the history and changing nature of Sydney, Australia's first and largest metropolis. 

Courtesy of the State Library of New South Wales.

 

31 Rolls Of Undeveloped Film By Unknown WWII Soldier Discovered And Restored

January 23, 2015 /Photography News/ Macro photography can be one of the more difficult photography forms. It requires a good grasp of focus and depth of field to make sure that all elements of the subject are properly in focus. 

Macro photography can be especially useful when photographing products, food, or wildlife. A well composed macro image can both show off a subject in the best light for sales purposes, but also wow the viewer. 

On the 5th of February, Photoion Photography school will be running a Macro Photography Course; allowing photographers of all skills to learn how to properly take macro photographs. 

Our macro photography workshop will help you to create clear, and sharp images, as well as giving you some wider skills you can apply to other photography. 

The course will begin with a short introduction to macro photography, as well as in depth descriptions of the tools and equipment you will be using to achieve stunning results. 

You’ll also learn about lighting, and what lighting set-ups work best for macro photography; as well as how to set up your lights to achieve the best results.

All you need is a basic understanding of camera lenses and settings; such as shutter speed, ISO, and exposure. You’ll also need a digital DSLR, but don’t worry if you don’t have one; just let us know beforehand and you can use one of our semi-professional models. 

This course will give you lasting skills to take excellent macro photographs, as well as a host of other tips and tricks that will help to improve your photography in general. 

You will be tutored by a professional photographer, whose skills and experience will help you to improve your images. 

About Photoion Photography School

Photoion is a Photography school based in central London. Our location gives us access to some of the most interesting photography locations in the world, and allows us to draw upon the talents of the best people in the industry. 

Each one of our tutors is a professional photographer with years of experience, and they have all worked with hundreds of students, helping them learn and improve their photography skills. 

If you would like to learn macro photography, you can book a place on one of our photography courses, or if you’re interested in improving your skills in another area, or learning the basics of photography to help you take the beautiful images you’ve always dreamed of, you can visit our website: http://www.photoion.co.uk. 

January 18, 2015 /Photography News/ Send your suggestions for inclusion in our next weekly roundup:

Churches burned in Niger, photographer shot in the chest in Pakistan and violent clashes in Jordan: Muslim world reacts angrily to Charlie Hebdo's 'survivor' edition

A Lost Story of Segregated America From LIFE’s First Black Photographer

Remembering John Dillwyn Llewelyn Early Swansea Photography

The importance of protecting freelancers

The Most Popular Cameras Of 2014, According To Flickr

In Photos: Remembering Photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston

Mike Disfarmer: How One Photographer Became Famous After Death 

Incredible Aerial Photographs Of New York City Taken At An Astounding Height

Handwritten correspondence, photographs of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis auctioned for $28,400

Human Rights Human Wrongs – photography

January 15, 2015 /Photography News/ Born 151 years ago, on 15 January 1864, Frances Benjamin Johnston was one of the earliest American female photographers and photojournalists.

She received her first camera from George Eastman - the inventor of the Eastman Kodak cameras - and was trained by Thomas William Smillie, the director of photography at the Smithsonian Institute. 

Johnston began her professional life as an artist-reporter. Sensing a changing trend in journalistic illustration while working as the Washington correspondent for a New York newspaper, she turned to photography.

She made her name as a photographer in the 1890s, taking portraits of the political elite in Washington, D.C. - she was the official White House photographer during the Harrison, Cleveland, McKinley, Roosvelt, and Taft administrations.

The Ladies Home Journal published in 1897 Johnston's article What a Woman Can Do With a Camera, urging women to consider photography as a means of supporting themselves. She co-curated (with Zaida Ben-Yusuf) an exhibition of photographs by twenty-eight women photographers at the 1900 Exposition Universelle, which afterwards travelled to Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and Washington, DC.

Johnston photographed events such as world's fairs and peace-treaty signings and took the last portrait of President William McKinley, at the Pan American Exposition of 1901 just before his assassination.

In 1904 Johnston joined the Photo-Secession.

In the 1920s she became increasingly interested in photographing architecture, being one of the first contributors to the Pictorial Archives of Early American Architecture. Her photographs remain an important resource for modern architects, historians and conservationists.

She was a juror for the second Philadelphia Salon of Photography, received four consecutive Carnegie Foundation grants to document historic gardens and architecture of the South, and was made an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects in 1945. 

Johnston continued to photograph until her death in May 1952 at age 88.