Lewis Carroll: Photography on the Move

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

As Alice's Adventures in Wonderland celebrates its 150th birthday, LewisCarroll remains one of Victorian culture's most prominent and compellingfigures. Few readers, however, have had the chance to explore the extent ofCarroll's passion for photography, a new technology that was gaining popularityduring his lifetime. Lewis Carroll: Photography on the Move followsthe journey of Carroll's photography in tandem with his writing.

Reviews

Carroll was a prolific amateur photographer and, as Smith is keen to emphasize, he was also an avid consumer of photographs, particularly in his later years when he is often said to have given up the hobby. Lewis Carroll: Photography on the Move demonstrates this through meticulous research, rooted in Carrolls own letters and diaries and, of course, his photographs, many of which are included as illustrations. Smith has searched out collections around the world, matching photographs mentioned in Carrolls letters to images now residing, for example, in Ohio and Philadelphia. She makes fascinating connections between Carrolls photography and the other leisure pursuits he enjoyed . . . The books documentation of Carrolls photography and its relation to other areas of his life is immaculate . . . the book has a lot to offer to those interested in Carroll or in early photography. * TLS *
That this is the first monograph on Carrolls photography would be reason enough for its scholarly importance but far beyond this, Smith, with characteristic eloquence and rigour, opens up a previously closeted area of Carroll studies, questioning what it means to think of Carroll as a photographer. * Early Popular Visual Culture *
Through Carroll and his photographs, Lindsay explores the man, the collector, and the outsider, forever trying to see, understand, and be part of his work. Its too easy to see Carrolls photographs as proof of modern opinion against him, and reading Lewis Carroll: Photography on the Move, you are reminded not only of the difference in how photographs of children were once viewed, but also how collecting may have been a greater passion than the subjects . . . informative, entertaining, and a joy to read. The photographs are reproduced in lovely quality and many of them are unfamiliar. It certainly does give a new and refreshingly unscandalised examination of this intriguing Victorian photographer. * The Kissed Mouth *

Author Bio

Lindsay Smith is Professor of English at the University of Sussex and co-director of its Centre for the Visual. Her books include Pre-Raphaelitism: Poetry and Painting (2013), The Politics of Focus: Women, Children and Nineteenth-century Photography (1998) and Victorian Photography, Painting and Poetry (1995).