Peter Henry Emerson

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During the barley harvest, around 1886

Peter Henry Emerson (born May 13, 1856 in Sagua la Grande , Cuba , † May 12, 1936 in Falmouth , England ) was an English photographer and doctor of Cuban origin.

Emerson was one of the most important programmatists in photography in his day . In March 1886 he gave the lecture Photography, a Pictorial Art in front of the London “Camera Club”, in which he described a theory of art based on scientific principles: the artist's task is the effect of nature on the eye to imitate. Photography is superior to etching, woodcut and charcoal drawing in terms of the accuracy of the perspective reproduction. Emerson recommended platinum printing or photo etching ( photo engraving) for copying, as well as simple equipment for photography: a frosted screen camera, a sturdy tripod, and a lens with a relatively long focal length. He thought handheld cameras were unusable, and he also refused to enlarge and retouch them as distorting.

His main publication "Naturalistic Photography" appeared for the first time in 1889. In it he dealt primarily with the relationship between human perception and photography and proclaimed the technique of "Out of Focus", artistic blurring. In doing so, the photographer should take a picture of his subject as the person sees it with his eyes: the main subject of the picture is sharp, everything else is slightly blurred. Further theses were that the focus should be stepless and the photographer had to use his technique consciously in order to achieve the desired effect of exactly imitating natural vision. Furthermore, Emerson argued for the establishment of photography as art, on a par with paintings.

Emerson was arguably one of the most controversial and misunderstood photography theorists of his day. Many of his theses were controversial, and his artistic blurriness was often taken to extremes by others that everything in the picture blurred like a fog.

In 1891 Emerson published a revised version of "Naturalistic Photography" and finally a third version in 1899, in which he completely revoked his claim that photography was art. However, this revocation did not have the same effects on the public as his first writing, and Emerson himself continued to work according to his principles, albeit no longer with the aim of producing art.

Emerson belonged to the Pictorialists movement towards the end of the 19th century, which was strongly oriented towards Impressionism . Together with Alfred Stieglitz he coined the principle of "Intentional Creation": everything from the choice of the subject to the composition, from the design of the format to the choice of the lens and the materials used to print the final image, all of these had to be decisions which were felled based on technical knowledge and the precise idea of ​​the end result - nothing was accidental! The aim was to depict emotions, to create a mood of light and shadow, not just to capture objects. Above all, this was a counter-movement to the then emerging amateur photography with handheld cameras, which for the first time triggered a real flood of images. The guiding principle of this movement may be “Mere triggering is no art!”.

Publications (selection)

  • Paul Ray at the Hospital: a Picture of Student Life (1882)
  • Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads (1886)
  • Pictures from Life in Field and Fen (1887)
  • The Compleat Angler, or, The Contemplative Man's Recreation. Being a Discourse of Rivers, Fish-Ponds, Fish, and Fishing written by Izaak Walton and photos by Emerson (1888)
  • Idylls of the Norfolk Broads (1888)
  • Pictures of East Anglian Life (1888)
  • Naturalistic photography for students of the art . Publisher: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington London, 1889
  • Wild Life on a Tidal Water (1890)
  • On English Lagoons (1893)
  • Birds, Beasts and Fishes of the Norfolk Broadland (1895)
  • Marsh Leaves (1895)
  • Caóba, the guerrilla chief. A Real Romance of the Cuban Rebellion (1897)
  • The English Emersons; a genealogical historical sketch of the family from the earliest times to the end of the seventeenth century, including various modern pedigrees, with an appendix of authorities.
  • The English Emersons, a genealogical historical sketch to the end of the 17th century (1898)
  • Suggested Amended Billiard Rules for Amateur Players (1908)
  • Books by Peter Henry Emerson on the Internet Archive - Online

Web links

Commons : Peter Henry Emerson  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Emerson, Peter Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English photographer and doctor
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Sagua la Grande , Cuba
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 1936
Place of death Falmouth , England