The Linked Ring (also known as "The Brotherhood of the Linked Ring") was a British photographic society created to propose and defend photography as being just as much an art as it was a science. Members dedicated to the craft looked for new techniques that would cause the less knowledgeable to steer away, persuading photographers and enthusiasts to experiment with chemical processes, printing techniques and new styles.
25-457: Photography was interpreted in two ways: art photography and science photography. The science of photography requires practice that determines the outcome of the image, whereas the art aspect of photography concerns itself with the aesthetic experience and success of the photograph to the viewer. These differences created a tension in the craft that the Linked Ring sought to change. The group
50-498: A "mediaeval" setting, anticipating the work of Julia Margaret Cameron , Burne-Jones and the Symbolists . According to his letters, he was influenced by the paintings of J. M. W. Turner . He defended composite photography, asserting that the creation of combination photographs was as demanding of the photographer as paintings were of the artist. Robinson compared the making of Fading Away with Zeuxis' legendary combining of
75-564: A new studio in Tunbridge Wells with Nelson King Cherrill , and in 1870 he became vice-president of the Royal Photographic Society . He advocated strongly for photography to be regarded as an art form. The partnership with Cherrill dissolved in 1875, Robinson continuing the business until his retirement in 1888. His son, Ralph Winwood Robinson, took over the studio business. Following internal disputes within
100-448: Is distinct evidence of personal feeling and execution." As a result, interest grew in processes such as gum bi-chromate, oil pigment and transfer, and supported the trend in producing images not for reproduction, but works of high value, as well as creating interest in surface texture, papers, and colour of print. In 1896 they began publishing The Linked Ring Papers, which were circulated annually to members until 1909 to promote and discuss
125-860: The Bromsgrove bookseller Benjamin Maund, then in 1851 for the London-based Whittaker & Co. In 1852 he exhibited an oil painting, On the Teme Near Ludlow , at the Royal Academy . This year also marked the beginning of his photographic work. Five years later, following a meeting with the photographer Hugh Welch Diamond , he decided to devote himself to that medium. He opened his first studio in 1855 in Leamington Spa to sell portraits. In 1856, with Rejlander , he
150-795: The LACMA , the Harvard Art Museums , the Princeton University Art Museum , the Metropolitan Museum of Art , the J. Paul Getty Museum , and the National Gallery of Victoria . Robinson was author of a number of texts in which he promoted the photography as an art form, his books being widely used photographic reference material in the late 19th century. Frederick H. Evans Frederick H. Evans (26 June 1853 – 24 June 1943)
175-472: The Evans' philosophy favoring extremely literal images was restrictive of the creative expression rapidly becoming available within the growing technology of the photographic field. Evans was also an able photographer of landscapes and portraits, and among the many notable friends and acquaintances he photographed was George Bernard Shaw , with whom he also often corresponded. Evans was made an honorary fellow of
200-466: The Linked Ring's photography magazines, writing publications for the newspaper, and installations at Photo Salon. One of the most gifted and sensitive of "the Links", Evans is known for his images of architecture , specifically cathedrals . He is known to have spent weeks living in the cathedrals he photographed waiting for ideal lighting conditions to reveal the poetry in his subjects. Frank S. Sutcliffe
225-471: The Photo-Secession at Fifth Avenue, New York City . Members include Mary Devens , Frank Eugene , Gertrude Käsebier , William B. Dyer , Eva Watson-Schütze , Edward Steichen , Edmund Stirling , and Clarence H. White . Pictorialist James Craig Annan was born into a household at the forefront of photography technology. In 1866 his father created a four-foot print of an eleven-foot painting with
250-705: The Photographic Society, he resigned in 1891 to become one of the early members of the rival Linked Ring society, in which he was active until 1897, when he was also elected an honorary member of the Royal Photographic Society. Robinson was an early supporter of the Photographic Convention of the United Kingdom and took part in this institution's long running debates about photography as an art form. He
275-468: The aesthetics and practice of pictorialism. The Photo-Secession was founded by photographer Alfred Stieglitz in 1902. Stieglitz wanted to show that photography had artistic expression similar to that of painting and sculpture, emphasizing further the craftsmanship abilities of photographers. Photo-Secession members were also called American Links, and displayed works in the Little Galleries of
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#1732782414913300-938: The best features of five young ladies from Crotona to produce his picture of Helena. Robinson's work is held in the permanent collections of several institutions, including the Johnson Museum of Art , the Clark Art Institute , the Seattle Art Museum , the Saint Louis Art Museum , the George Eastman Museum , the Worcester Art Museum , the SFMOMA , the University of Michigan Museum of Art ,
325-515: The easier 'scissors and paste-pot' method of making his combination prints, rather than the more exacting darkroom method employed by Rejlander. Relocating to London, Robinson kept up his involvement with the theoretical side of photography, writing the influential essay Pictorial Effect in Photography (1869) and Being Hints on Composition and Chiaroscuro for Photographers , (1868). Around this time his health had improved sufficiently to open
350-477: The new process of carbon printing. This became Annan’s primary influence to become a skilled photographer himself. At a young age, he learned the process of photogravure in Vienna on a trip with his father. This process allowed Annan to work like an etcher —sharpening, shading, or blurring areas of the picture, describing this process as "a long drawn out pleasure". Frederick H. Evans was responsible for leading
375-468: The oldest of four children of John Robinson, a Ludlow schoolmaster, and his wife Eliza. He was educated at Horatio Russell's academy in Ludlow until he was thirteen. He left the academy to take up a year's drawing tuition with Richard Penwarne before being apprenticed to a Ludlow bookseller and printer, Richard Jones. While continuing to study art, his initial career was in bookselling. In 1850 he worked for
400-434: The time, suited Evans' subject matter. Almost as soon as he began, however, the cost of platinum - and consequently, the cost of platinum paper for his images - began to rise. Because of this cost, and because he was reluctant to adopt alternate methodologies, by 1915 Evans retired from photography altogether. Evans' ideal of straightforward, "perfect" photographic rendering - unretouched or modified in any way - as an ideal
425-511: Was a founding member of the Birmingham Photographic Society. In 1859, he married Selina Grieves, daughter of a Ludlow chemist, John Edward Grieves. His son, Ralph Winwood Robinson, was also a photographer. In 1864, at the age of 34, Robinson was forced to give up his studio due to ill-health from exposure to toxic photographic chemicals. Photography historian Gernsheim has shown that thereafter Robinson preferred
450-625: Was also a member. Although works by female photographers such as those by Zaida Ben-Yusuf were exhibited at the annual shows during the 1890s , it was not until 1900 that Gertrude Käsebier became one of the first elected female members of the Ring. In November 1893, Robinson created the Photographic Salon, an annual exhibit event in England whose aim was to "exhibit [images] that are description of pictorial photography in which there
475-402: Was an English pictorialist photographer best known for his pioneering combination printing - joining multiple negatives or prints to form a single image; an early example of photomontage . He engaged in contemporary debates in the photographic press and associations about the legitimacy of 'art photography' and in particular the combining of separate images into one. Robinson was
500-531: Was an English photographer, best known for his images of architectural subjects, such as English and French cathedrals. Evans was born and died in London. He began his career as a bookseller, but retired from that to become a full-time photographer in 1898, when he adopted the platinotype technique for his photography. Platinotype images, with extensive and subtle tonal range, non glossy-images, and better resistance to deterioration than other methods available at
525-486: Was buried in Tunbridge Wells in early 1901. Robinson was one of the most prominent art photographers of his day. His third and the most famous composite picture, "Fading Away" (1858), was both popular and fashionably morbid. He was a follower of the pre-Raphaelites and was influenced by the aesthetic views of John Ruskin . In his Pre-Raphaelite phase he attempted to realize moments of timeless significance in
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#1732782414913550-968: Was founded in May 1892 by Henry Peach Robinson , former Photographic Society of Great Britain member George Davison , and Henry Van der Weyde . The Brotherhood was "a means of bringing together those who are interested in the development of the highest form of Art of which Photography is capable." Membership of the group was by invitation only; other members included James Craig Annan , Walter Benington , Arthur Burchett, Alvin Langdon Coburn , Frederick H. Evans , Alfred Horsley Hinton , Frederick Hollyer , Harold Moritmer Lamb , Richard Keene , Alexander Keighley , Paul Martin , Alfred Maskell, Lydell Sawyer (aka Lyd Sawyer), William Smedley-Aston , Frank Sutcliffe , J. B. B. Wellington , and, later, Americans Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. , Clarence H. White and Alfred Stieglitz . Robinson's son, Ralph Winwood Robinson ,
575-520: Was invited to serve as the President of the PCUK in 1891 but, as he described later, 'I felt compelled to decline, knowing that I could not carry out the duties as they should be carried out, having a defect of voice which would not allow me to read my own address'. He was subsequently persuaded to serve as President in 1896, when his presidential speeches were read out by a colleague. He died aged 70 and
600-513: Was most well known for his image "Water Rats", exemplary of being one of the first images showing depth of field accomplished in camera. The Brotherhood represented themselves with a logo of three interlinked rings, which were meant in part to represent the Masonic beliefs of Good, True, and Beautiful. Henry Peach Robinson Henry Peach Robinson (9 July 1830, Ludlow , Shropshire – 21 February 1901, Royal Tunbridge Wells , Kent )
625-539: Was well-suited to the architectural foci of his work: the ancient, historic, ornate and often quite large cathedrals, cloisters and other buildings of the English and French countryside. This perfectionism, along with his tendency to exhibit and write about his work frequently, earned for him international respect and much imitation. He ultimately became regarded as perhaps the finest architectural photographer of his, or any, era - though some professionals privately felt that
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