PHOTOGRAPHY AS ART AND SOCIAL HISTORY

Part 1: The Francis Bedford Topographical Photographs

PUBLISHER'S NOTES

Some 3,000 photographs make up this topographical collection. Francis Bedford, 1816-1894, was one of the best known English landscape photographers of the wet-plate period.  He worked extensively in the south-west of England, the West Midlands and in Wales.  Most of the negatives were taken after 1860. The few taken as late as the 1890s were the work of  Bedford’s son.

Between 1843 and 1849 he frequently exhibited at the Royal Academy.  In the 1850s he produced numerous publications featuring his work including two Photographic Albums, 1855-1856; The Treasury of Ornamental Art, 1858; and The Sunbeam, 1859. By 1861 he had been elected Vice-President of the London Photographic Society.  The 1860s was his most active decade. His business by then was flourishing and lucrative. In 1862 Bedford received a Royal Commission to accompany the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) on this educational tour of the Middle East. In 1864 he contributed to The RUINED Castles of North Wales and over the next four years produced a whole series of PHOTOGRAPHIC VIEWS covering North Wales, Tenby, and neighbourhood, Exeter, Torquay, Warwickshire, Stratford-upon-Avon and neighbourhood. This was definitely his most productive period and the core of the collection reproduced here bears this out. Malvern, Warwick, Ludlow, Wells, Chester and Torquay are all well featured.

In a keynote article, entitles Landscape Photography and its Trials published in the Year-Book of Photography and reprinted in the Philadelphia  Photographer Vol XIII, No148, April 1876, Francis Bedford wrote as follows:

"The life of the landscape photographer is assuredly an enviable one. The pursuit of his favourite art leads him to pleasant places, and brings him face to face with whatever is most lovely and enjoyable in Nature’s fair domain; but it is not a life of unmixed content. How often it happens that the buoyant hopes with which he has looked forward to the coming trip are disappointed, and the harvest on which he has too confidently reckoned is ne’er reaped! I do verily believe that no member of the community is so sorely tried as he is. He may be a master of his art, and yet his most carefully laid plans, and all his efforts, may be frustrated by a spell of bad weather. Causes entirely beyond his control often reduce him to inaction, and unless he be blessed with wonderful patience and determined devotion to his art, he soon becomes dejected and hopeless. So many are the conditions of success that it is scarcely to be expected that all will go well with him. A light sunshiny day, and perfect stillness, are indispensable for some particular view on which he has set his heart. He has carefully studied it beforehand, and he comes to it full of spirits, hoping to secure at the right moment  the bright picture he has painted in his mind’s eye. The camera is adjusted, and the plate is ready, when, to his infinite chagrin, the sun goes behind a cloud from which it is not likely to emerge again; or the wind rises, and sets in motion the trees or foliage, on which all the beauty of the picture depends. Or, greater still, successive days of rain or wind or leaden dullness bring matters to a standstill altogether, unless he be sufficiently hopeful and patient to take advantage of sunshine as may come even on the most unpromising days; and that is just what he must make up his mind to do, for it is often on these very days, when it appears to be of little use venturing out at all, that a break will come in the clouds, and the sun shine out white and bright, and the most charming effects are seen. Such chances should never be neglected, for they may prove to be the sole opportunity.

But it is quite possible on the roughest days to get good results with the exercise of a little patience. Of course, if wind blows continuously, as it does sometimes without cessation, landscape photography is simply impossible; but when it comes in sudden gusts , violent enough, perhaps, to dash the camera to the ground, there are intervals of perfect stillness, during which foliage may be rendered perfectly by uncapping and capping the lens at the right time.  A plate carefully prepared, with a bath in good order, and then closely drained, will keep longer than is generally supposed, and it will be hard if one cannot, during half or three-quarters of an hour, get the requisite two or three minutes exposure. But I would suggest here that he should, first of all, fix his camera-stand firmly in the ground, and then, with a stout string, suspend from the screw-head a big stone or other heavy weight. He will then be free from any solicitude for the safety of his camera, and can give all his thoughts to his work. Sometimes small shrubs or weeds in the foreground cause such annoyance by their motion when all else is still; these may be judiciously pruned without injury to property.  If a bough of a tree obtrudes, or is otherwise troublesome, it is better to tie it back out of the way, and release it as soon your view is taken. I have succeeded in obtaining, in a very high wind, subjects consisting almost wholly of foliage, which had all the appearance of being done on a perfectly still day.  If, however, the wind, our greatest foe, proves too much for us, even then there is good work to be done. There are often magnificent cloud effects at such times, and if the photographer will set to work upon them, he may obtain a stock of such cloud negatives as will serve to convert comparatively uninteresting views into perfect pictures.

And then, again, while waiting for this or that view, which can only be done on a very perfect day, the true worker need never be at a loss for subjects for the camera; there is a very wide field open, and he will find occupation of an improving and delightful kind in taking, as occasion offers, studies of many a picturesque object full of interesting details. An old barn or shed, for instance, with a cart or clematis, with perhaps, its aged and simple inmate or a little child at its rustic porch; boats and other craft on the seabeach, or a group of brambles and ferns by the roadside, or a gate at the entrance to a wood, such subjects as these, and many others of a like nature, are often met with in sheltered spots, and can be photographed successfully even on a dull and windy day; and they form such choice “bits” as his artist friends, when they turn over his folio, will stop at, and find true delight in.”

This article provides a very good insight into the man, his temperament, methods of work and the way in which he used special techniques to enhance ordinary photographs.  It highlights his painstaking approach with landscapes with a thorough appraisal of the problems faced by the photographer on a day to day basis.  His attention to detail was just as impressive with architectural and ecclesiastical subjects which also formed a significant portion of this work.

Photographs were an important part of Victorian life. Francis Bedford is acclaimed as one of England’s more significant early landscape photographers and his work is a good example of both techniques, as well as providing an excellent record for the landscape in the early Victorian period.

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