William England

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William England, 1886
William England: Views of Switzerland and Savoy, Mr. & Mrs. England vor Bern, 1863

William England (* 1830 in Trowbridge ; † August 13, 1896 in London ) was an English photographer and inventor .

Life

The year of birth can be found in the biographies between 1816 and 1830. The place of birth varies from London 1816 to Trowbridge , Wiltshire 1830. In the early 1840s England trained as a portrait photographer in a London studio for daguerreotypes . In 1854 he joined the London Stereoscopic Company . LSC established itself in the rapidly growing stereo recording market . William England, along with Thomas Richard Williams and the late Robert Howlett, became one of the leading photographers in the company that existed until 1922.

England's photograph of Blondin's Niagara crossing (1859)

William England initially specialized in stereoscopic landscape photography and travel images with a compact stereoscopic camera that he helped to develop. In 1858 he traveled through Ireland. In 1859 he brought the first series of photos from the USA and Canada to Europe. The picture of the rope artist Charles Blondin crossing the Niagara Gorge in 1859 saw a circulation of 100,000 photos sold. Recordings from Paris followed in 1860 and 1861. In 1862 England and his team took 350 stereo photos of the London World's Fair, a project for which LSC had acquired the exclusive rights. In 1863 he traveled to Switzerland with the support of the Alpine Club. In 1863 he left the LSC after his presentation at the photographic Dublin International Exhibition and went freelance as a travel photographer. With a feeling for moods and selected perspectives, he was able to assert himself on the continent against the already established competition such as Adolphe Braun from Dornach / Alsace. In 1865 he released his first album with 77 recordings from Switzerland. In 1866 England opened his own photo printing studio in his home in Notting Hill . He sold the many varied motifs in four different versions from the Carte de Visite format, through stereoscopic slides (stereoscopic images), through the Small Cabinett Series in the format of 6½ to 3½ inches with colored edges to the luxury edition Large Cabinet Series in the format of 8½ 6½ inch mounted on specialty paper. In 1867 England cooperated with various organizations, whereby the cooperation with the British Alpine Club , which has existed since 1863, and the photographs taken in this context from the Alpine region stand out.

From 1867 onwards, photographs were taken in Germany that reflect the romanticism of the Rhine, as well as photographs from Bavaria and Tyrol. The pictures from the Rhine trip were exhibited by the German Photographic Society in 1868. In 1870, when the Franco-Prussian War broke out, England was arrested on the Rhine as a French spy. His equipment was confiscated and only returned after the war. England developed numerous photographic processes during his active time, including the morphine dry process, which he tried out on his trip to the Rhine in 1870. In addition, there were technical improvements to the cameras. In 1871 England joined the London Photographic Society and became vice-president in 1886. In 1886 he was a founding member of the Photographic Convention of the United Kingdom . William England died on August 13, 1896 in London. England, largely forgotten for a long time, is now regarded as one of the most important photographers of the Victorian era.

family

William England married the French Rosalie Vernier in November 1850 in Paddington, London. The couple often appears in the staffage of travel pictures from the 1860s. There were five children from this marriage. In 1874 England had a second childless marriage with Eliza Hagar Read Riches.

Fonts

  • The Tanin Process - Transparencies - Instant Photography. In: Photographisches Archiv - Monthly reports on the progress of photography. Third volume, 1862.
  • The modification of the Collodion albumin process. In: Photographisches Archiv - Monthly reports on the progress of Photographiem. Seventh volume, 1867.
  • The morphine dry process. In: Photographisches Archiv - Monthly reports on the progress of photography. Twelfth Volume, 1871.

literature

  • Ian Jeffrey: An American Journey: The Photography of William England. Prestel, 1999, ISBN 3-7913-2158-7 .
  • Gérard Bourgarel : William England (1816–1896): dès 1863, son exploration photographique de la Suisse. (= Pro Friborg. 149). Friborg 2005, OCLC 704526224 .

Works by William England

  • Bad Ragaz, 1863

  • View of Unterseen near Interlaken, 1863

  • River section at Isleworth (London), 1862

  • Teddington Weir, 1862

  • Western Dome of the World's Fair in London, 1862

  • Mr. and Mrs. England in front of the Giesbach, 1863

  • Bust of Raffaele Monti, World Exhibition 1872

Web links

Commons : William England  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Hannavy: Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography. Routledge, 2013, p. 487.
  2. ^ Gerlind-Anicia Lorch: Far countries in 3-D. William England's (c. 1830–1896) stereoscopic travel photography . Dissertation, University of Hamburg 2017.
  3. ↑ See Hartmut Wettmann: William England's 1867 Rhine Journey. In: Stereoworld. Volume 29, Number 1, 2002 (online)
  4. ↑ Hartmut Wettmann: William England's 1867 Rhine Journey. In: Stereoworld. Volume 29, Number 1, 2002, p. 8.
  5. ↑ John Hannavy: Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography. Volume 1, Routledge, 2008, p. 489.
  6. ^ Ron Consens: Photographers of Great Britain & Ireland 1840-1940. (on-line)
personal data
SURNAME England, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English photographer and inventor
DATE OF BIRTH 1830
PLACE OF BIRTH Trowbridge
DATE OF DEATH August 13, 1896
Place of death London