Pictorialism- Henry Peach Robinosn

Henry Peach Robinson was born in 1830 in Ludlow, England. He sadly passed away in Tumbridge in 1901. Beginning of his photography career was made from Dr. Hugh Diamonds instructions. 
Some key points about Robinosn: 

• He made combination of prints, joining multiple negatives to create a singe image. 
• He was doing pictoresque aesthetic ( Artistic was of imagination) from painting, 
• He wrote books like : "Being Hints on Compositon", Chiaroscuro fro Photographers, Pictorial Effect in Photography.
• He abandoned the book selling trade and opened a photographic studio ( he was specializing in portraits)

H. Robinson was a photographer that used Pictoriasm as his technique of creating amazing images and was specialising in combination printing ( multiple negatives joined together, creating a singe image) . Pictorialism is a photo that emphasise beauty of subject matter, tonality and composition rather than documentation of reality. This method made a camera just a tool, that the paintbrush and chisel, could be used to make an artistic statement. Therefore Robinson photographs were called aesthetic value. ( artistically ). Some presume that, he was introduced to combination printing by Oscar Reijnader, one of his friends, and very first Photographer who discovered this method. Henry Robinson used this technique for much of his career and relied on it as tool for promoting his firm belief that , in the hands of artist who understood the rules of composition and lighting , photography could aspire to and achieve the status of pictorial art. 

However Many critics felt that photography was not and could never be art because it is a mechanical process . Other argued that the camera was like the paintbrush, simply one of many tolld available for making art. When Henry Robinson outlined his methods in 1860, he was getting howls of protest from people who seemed to feel that they had been deceived. But at the time, photographers who took the letter view,  turned their cameras towards picturesque subjects, such as landscapes and ruins , applying established rules of artistic composition and lighting. In order to established photography as a recognised art form it was important for Henry to demonstrate to critics how Henry's imagination and idealisation could be expressed photographically. 

Though Robinson is particularly known for his combination printing, he also produced a number of pictorial photographs of woodland and other scenes.

The Lady of Shalott by Henry Peach Robinson.
1861. Albumen print from two negatives, 12 x 10 in. (30.4 x 50.8 cm.).
 Unsigned. The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas 
Image Recourse: The Lady of Shallot

Perhaps the most famous photograph that Robinson has taken is "When Day's Work is done."  The gentleman in the picture had appeared one day for a carte-de-visite, and Robinson earmarked him for this project. He then searched for a suitable old lady. Both were photographed in his studio separately and at different times, and then assembled. 

Henry Peach Robinson

12.6 x 18 cm (image); 28.1 x 37.7 cm (paper)

When the Day's Work is Done, 1877, printed January 1890

Photogravure, from "Sun Artists, Number 2" (1890)

The image source: When the Day's work is done

Quit often H. Robinosn was looking for costumed actors or society ladies modelled for his many bucolic scenes. It is because, since he found actual country people too awkward and dull to fit his ideal of the picturesque. The most famous picture that he have taken was "Fading Away". Shows a death of  a young girl surrounded by her family.  This photograph was taken in 1858. Albumen print from five wet collodion on glass negatives. 

Fading Away, composite photograph made from five negatives by Henry Peach Robinson, 1858; in …

George Eastman House Collection

The image source: Fading Away

For Victorian viewers, the image evoked not only the distressing reality of disease but also the romantic associations of consumption , which was combined with artistic creativity and unrequited love. Robinosn exhibited a study of Fading Away's central figure under the title " She never told her Love".

 On the other hand some viewers and critics in the same time, were disturb to see such a n intimate and morbid scene represented in a medium a realistic as photography, Victorian audience recognised that Robinosn had a photographed a model acting a part , not an actual dying girl. The contrived nature of the print (made from five separate negatives) may not been immediately apparent but the overtly theatrical nature of the composition with freezelike arrangement of figure framed by parted curtains, signalled that "Fading Away" was a staged scene. 

By Robinson's controversial way of composing his photographs, many critics or rivals were very straightfoward about his way of working in a Pictorialism. Another famous photographer Peter Emerson, called Robinson an "amature photographer" and later said in his book ( ) " This is an inane, flat, vapid piece of work, bigger and more worthless than ever. Its composition is childish and its sentiment puerile". He also said " images should never be altered after exposure" , and at the end he desired Robinon's practice of using costumed models and painted backdrops. 

Also Henry didn't leave it without making his statement:

 "Any dodge, trick and conjuration of any kind is open to the photographer's use.... It is his imperative duty to avoid the mean, the base and the ugly, and to aim to elevate his subject.... and to correct the unpicturesque....A great deal can be done and very beautiful pictures made, by a mixture of the real and the artificial in a picture." ( H. Robinson- Pictorial Effect in Photography – 1867)

And later he added: 

 “"I must warn you against a too close study of art to the exclusion of nature and the suppression of original thought.... Art rules should be a guide only to the study of nature, and not a set of fetters to confine the ideas or to depress the faculty of original interpretation in the artist, whether he be painter or photographer.... The object (of rules) is to train his mind so that he may select with ease, and, when he does select, know why one aspect of a subject is better than another."

 Yet Henry Robinson decided to it's going to be better in the future not to divulge the secrets of his craft , but leave people to enjoy the finished portraits. 

I believe that guy never stopped working and creating amazing and controversial images, even when people were criticising him he still kept his business and art photography going very well. He even kept receiving official honours and in 1892 became a founding member of the linked Ring " An association of prestigious Art photographers. He also use to write his own essays, and in 1862 Robinson was elected to serve on the Council of the Photographic Society, and continued to serve on that body until 1891. 

Reference: 

•  Robinson, H. P. (1860). On Printing Photographic Pictures from Several Negatives. British Journal of Photography, 7(115), 94.

• Britannica, Henry Peach Robinson, British Photographer, Written by: The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica (2001), https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Peach-Robinson
• Mpritchard.com, Robinson Henry Peach, Journal written by: Robert Leggat, (1999) , http://www.mpritchard.com/photohistory/history/robinson.htm
• Juliet Hacking, Foreword by David Campany (2012), Photography, The Whiole Story, London, Uk, Thames & Hudson