Room Guide
Room 1
Precursors
Photography underwent rapid technological developments during the second half of the nineteenth century. However, the earliest photograph in this room, Charles Nègre’s portrait of three chimney sweeps, was still taken with cumbersome equipment and the pose required a long exposure time: what appears to be a snapshot is in fact a carefully choreographed scene.
It was not until the introduction of fast gelatine silver plates at the beginning of the 1880s that photographers could take detailed pictures of moving subjects. This opened the way for photographers such as Henri Rivière to capture the atmosphere of modern city life, or Louis Vert, who documented the coming and going of tramps and small-tradespeople.
Studio photography was also a highly staged process, with sitters adopting poses reminsicent of those in paintings. In Switzerland, Carl Durheim was commissioned by the police to photograph vagrants. He presented them seated at a table and either frontal or in semi-profile. The same poses were being used by the middle classes and celebrities who flocked in increasing numbers to photographic studios. The popularity of such portraits is evident in the French magazine Galerie Contemporaine, which published studio photographs of celebrities and leading cultural figures, such as the poet Charles Baudelaire.
- Other works in this room
- Henri Rivière (1864 Paris – 1951 Sucy en Brie, France)
From a series of street scenes, Paris 1885–95 Passengers on the Upper Deck of a Bus
Personnages, deux chiens et voitures à impériale sur le pont du Louvre (People, Two dogs and a car on the Louvre Bridge
Gelatin silver print
9 x 12 cm
X22715 - Henri Rivière (1864 Paris – 1951 Sucy en Brie, France)
Un couple rentrant dans un bâtiment public (A Couple Entering a Public Building), 9 x 12 cm
9 x 12 cm
Paris, Musée d’Orsay,
X22717 - Henri Rivière (1864 Paris – 1951 Sucy en Brie, France)
Femmes portant de grands paniers, quartiers des Halles (Women Carrying Large Baskets in the Market Borough)
Gelatin silver print
9 x 12 cm
Paris, Musée d’Orsay,
X22718 - Charles Nègre (1820 Grasse, France – 1880 Grasse)
Les Ramoneurs en marche(Chimney Sweeps Walking), before May 1852
Salted paper, 15.9 x 21.7 cm
Musée Carnavalet-Histoire de Paris, Paris
X22831 - Le petit chiffonier (Little Rag-picker), 1851
Albumen print, 13.6 x 10.3 cm
Collection Thomas Walther
X23168 - Louis Vert (1865 Paris – 1924 Epluches, France)
From the series featuring Small Trades and Clochards, 1900–05
Vitrier (Glaser), 190-1902, printed 1930 23.5 x 17.4 cm
Gelatin silver print
Musée Carnavalet-Histoire de Paris, Paris
X22828 - Louis Vert (1865 Paris – 1924 Epluches, France)
From the series featuring Small Trades and Clochards, 1900–05
Etameur (Tinsmith), 1900-190223.5 x 17.4 cm
Gelatin silver print
Musée Carnavalet-Histoire de Paris, Paris
X22830 - Louis Vert (1865 Paris – 1924 Epluches, France)
From the series featuring Small Trades and Clochards, 1900–05
Clochard endormi sur un banc (Tramp Sleeping on a Bench), March 1905, 14.3 x 21.4 cm
Gelatin silver print
Musée Carnavalet-Histoire de Paris, Paris
X22825 - Louis Vert (1865 Paris – 1924 Epluches, France)
From the series featuring Small Trades and Clochards, 1900–05
Clocharde assise sur un banc (Female Tramp Sitting on a Bench), March 1905, 14.3 x 21.1 cm
Gelatin silver print
Musée Carnavalet-Histoire de Paris, Paris
X22827 - Camille Silvy (1834 Nogent-le-Rotrou, France – 1910 Saint-Maurice, France)
Declaration.
L’ordre du jour de l’empereur à l’armée pour aller en Italie, Paris (The Emperor’s Announcement: Sending the Army to Italy) 1859, 25.7 x 18.8 cm
Albumen silver print
Collection Thomas Walther
X23169 - John Thomson (1837 Edinburgh – 1921 London)
From the book Street Life in London, 1877
London Nomads,10.8 x 8.5 cm
Covent Garden Flower Women,11.1 x 8.2 cm
Recruiting Sergeants at Westminster,11.3 x 9 cm
Public Disinfectors,11.1 x 9 cm
Street Doctor,11.3 x 9 cm
Street Advertising,11.2 x 8.6 cm
‘Caney’ the Clown,11.5 x 8.8 cm
The Temperance Sweep,9 x 5.8 cm p. 24
The Dramatic Shoe-Black,9 x 11.7 cm
Covent Garden Labourers,11.5 x 8.7 cm
Woodburytypes
The RPS Collection at the National Media Museum, Bradford. Purchased with the assistance of the Art Fund
Z00920
Z00923
Z00960
Z00922
Z00921
Z00961
Z00963
Z00965
Z00964
Z00962 - Book cover
Street Life in London Part 3 by John Thomson F.R.G.S & Adolphe Smith with permanent illustrations. Illustrated contents: Street Doctors, Street Advertising, Clapham Common Industries, published by Sampson, Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 2 April 1877, 27.7 x 21.5 cm
Z00919
Book
Street Life in London Part 3 by John Thomson F.R.G.S & Adolphe Smith, 1878, 27.7 x 21.5 cm
The RPS Collection at the National Media Museum, Bradford. Purchased with the assistance of the Art Fund
Z00918 - Edizioni Brogi
Maccheronaio (Macaroni factory) Naples 1880, 19 x 24.7 cm
Albumen print, handcoloured
Collection Dietmar Siegert
X22824 - Giorgio Sommer (1834 Frankfurt – 1914 Naples)
Mangiatori di maccheroni (Macaroni Eaters), Naples, c. 1885, 24.2 x 18 cm
Albumen print
Dietmar Siegert Collection
X22816 - Irving Penn (1917 New Jersey, lives in New York)
From the series Small Trades, New York, 1950
Portrait of a Street Photographer, 1951/52
43.2 x 40.6 cm
Courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery New York
X25302 - Antanas Sutkus (1939 Motiejaus Kluoniskiai, Lithuania, lives in Vilnius)
Melody of Loneliness, Vilnius, 1977, printed 2000, 37 x 39 cm
Gelatin silver print
Fotografische Sammlung, Museum Folkwang, Essen
X25383 - Galerie Contemporaine, littéraire, artistique
Galerie Contemporaine, Vol. 5, Paris, 1880, Album 37 x 28 cm with 31 Woodburytypes
Galerie Contemporaine, Vol. 4, Paris, 1878, Album 37 x 28 cm, with 31 Woodburytypes - Etienne Carjat (1828–1906)
Jules Simon, published 1876–80
Victor Schœlcher, published 1876–80
Charles Baudelaire, c. 1863, published 1880 - Ferdinand Mulnier (active 1860–90)
Henri de Bornier, published 1876–80 - Nadar (1820–1910)
François Coppée, published 1876–80
Ferdinand Fabre, published 1876–80 - Antony Samuel Adam-Salomon (1818–81)
Charles Garnier, c. 1865, published 1878 - Emile Tourtin (active 1873–99)
Théodore de Banville, published 1876–80 - Woodburytypes, each 35.3 x 27.5 cm
Fotografische Sammlung, Museum Folkwang, Essen - Carl Durheim (1810 Bern – 1890 Bern)
From the series Swiss roamers, 1852–3
Joseph Ackermann, 37 Jahre alt (Joseph Ackermann, 37 Years Old), 17.9 x 12.4 cm
Salted paper prints
Swiss Federal Archives, Bern
X22959 - Carl Durheim (1810 Bern – 1890 Bern)
Wilhelm Schobel, 18 Jahre alt (Wilhelm Schobel, 18 Years Old), 18.6 x 14.5 cm
Salted paper prints
Swiss Federal Archives, Bern
X22958 - Ed van der Elsken (Eduard van der Elsken) (1925– 1990 Amsterdam)
Young woman in Cheong-San dress 1960, sequence of eight photographs, each 24 x 18 cm
Leiden University Library
X24894
X26679-85 - Philip-Lorca diCorcia (1951 Hartford, Connecticut, lives in New York)
From the series Heads
#06, 08, 20, 2001, each 125 x 155 x 4 cm
C-Prints
Collection Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels
X22760
X22761
X22762 - Walker Evans (1903 St Louis, Missouri – 1975 New Haven, Connecticut)
Labor Anonymous, Detroit, 1946
37 prints, different sizes, average 16 x 11.5 cm
each frame 33.5 x 26.1 cm
Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne
X22721, X22724, X22727, X22732, X22738, X22834, X22833, X22832, X22746, X22745, X22743, X22742, X22740, X22854, X22853, X22852, X22851, X22850, X22849, X22848, X22847, X22846, X22845, X22844, X22843, X22842, X22841, X22840, X22839, X22726, X22734, X22835, X22836, X22838, X22837 - Joel Sternfeld (1944 New York, lives in New York)
A lawyer with laundry, corner Bank and West 41st Street, NYC, October,1988
C-Print, 138 x 111 cm
Fotografische Sammlung, Museum Folkwang, Essen
X24728
- Henri Rivière (1864 Paris – 1951 Sucy en Brie, France)