Female Photographers in the Victorian & Edwardian Eras

In 1893, in an article in Cosmopolitan, Clarence Moore wrote “Unlike the gun, the racquet and the oar, the camera offers a field where women can compete with men on equal terms.“

In England women from aristocratic families began using photographs as an art form as early as the 1850’s. Carol Jacobi, the curator of “Painting with Light Art and Photography from the  Pre-Raphaelites to the Modern Age" at the Tate Britain says:  “This tendency developed in the 1850’s for painters and photographers to make images of their friends, family and lovers, it created portraits that are much more personal and individual and of course it made things much easier for a woman because her children or her maid could model for her, but when we say of women “Oh she photographed her children” well that belongs to a much bigger trend and it shouldn’t be used to suggest that the practice had less gravitas.” (reference Sarah Compton 6 May 2015, The Guardian)

Photography was an attractive and interesting artistic interest for women. Any woman with enough money to purchase the equipment and chemicals could train themselves.

One of the two most famous Victorian era photographers was Lady Clementina Hawarden (1822-1865) who captured intimate images of her domestic life.  She had eight children and had them as her principal subjects for portraiture.  Hawarden died at the age of 43. She was a prolific photographer. One of her descendants left 779 pictures to London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.

The most celebrated Victorian era photographer was Julia Margaret Cameron (1815 - 1879). Julia was given her first camera at age 48. Julia set up a studio where she took portraits of famous artists and writers of the time. She is considered one of the great female British artists of the 20th Century. One of her most striking images is the portrait of the poet Alfred Tennyson who was her neighbour.

In terms of celebrated British female late Victorian era and Edwardian era photographers there are two of particular note.

Ziada Ben Yussuf (1869 - 1933), a woman born in London of mixed German and Algerian parentage, who in 1895 set up a studio in New York and became one of the most in demand photographers in the city.  By 1900 she was praised as a leading member of “The New School of American Photography" however by 1901 she was listed in the New York Times list of debtors. In 1912 she gave up photography all together.

Minna Keene (1861-1943) was a Canadian self-taught portrait photographer who lived in Britain. She was considered hugely successful and was an early female member of “The Linked Ring“ a photographic society created to show that photography was just as much an art as it was a science, and was the first woman to be a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. Keene produced exceptional portraits and is widely exhibited and published .

The History of the Photographic Process

Beaumont Newhall wrote a wonderful book on the history of photography: "Photography from 1839 to the Present" (published in 1949). In order to appreciate the complexity of photographic history Beaumont Newhall's book is perhaps the most important resource, the below is a summary.

Photography began in the 1830's when a Frenchman Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used a camera obscura "to expose a pewter plate coated with bitumen to light". Niépce collaborated with Louis Daguerre and together they created the daguerreotype.

The daguerrotype was very popular until the late 1850's when it was replaced by a process called wet collodion plates. The images from the Civil War are a mixture of daguerrotypes for portraits and wet collodion plates. The process was invented by Englishman Fredrick Scott Archer in 1851. The process involved adding a soluble iodide solution of collodion and coating the glass plate with the mixture. In the darkroom the plate was immersed in a solution of silver nitrate to form silver iodide. The plate, still wet, was exposed to the camera. It was then developed by pouring a solution of pyrogallic acid over it and was fixed with potassium cyanide. The process was valued for its level of detail and clarity. In the 1870's Richard Maddox improved on the wet collodion plates by creating the dry plates. These plates could be stored, which allowed photographers much more freedom but did not compromise on speed or quality.

In 1900 Kodak released the Box Brownie, a camera with a mechanised shutter to control exposure and made photography accessible to a range of people.

Blanche Violet Maher

Blanche Violet Maher

18901900191019201894South Australia becomes the first colony in the world to give women the vote.1901Australia becomes a nation on 1 January, enabling the six Australian colonies to govern in their own right as the Commonwealth of Australia.1901Queen Victoria dies and Edward becomes King George. 1906Vaccine for Tuberculosis developed.1914First World War Begins.1920Women enter the workplace in large numbers post First World War.1912Australia sends women to the Olympic Games for the first time.1914Australian soldiers sent to the First World War fighting for the first time under the Australian flag, not the British. 1918First World War endswith 60,000 Australians dead.