Here I am. Engaged by publishers.

a room all for me! prisoner of Victorian conventions.

Albumen print from wet collodion negative
1864
24 X 29.7 cm
Musée d'Orsay
... admired by Lewis Carroll that he collected the work.

Albumen prin from wet collodion negative.
1862
11.0 X 6.8 cm
sepia photograph, mounted green card, of a young woman leaning against a door.
V&A Museum

Lady Clementina Hawarden, one of Britain's first female photographers

Albumen print from wet collodion negative
1862-1863
10.5 X 8.8 cm
sepia photograph,mounted on green card, of a young woman seated, hands crossed on chest.
V&A Museum

Albumen silver print from glass negative
20.1 X 14.4 cm
early 1860s
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

front cover of one of my very favourite books of my favourite photographer.

the book was published in 1974

Clementina was born 1 June 1822 at Cumberland House near Glasgow

her mother was Spanish

She turned to photography in late 1857 oe early 1858, whilst living on the estate of her husband's family in Dundrum, Co. Tipperary, Ireland.

A move to London in 1859 allowed her to set up a studio in her elegant home in South Kensington.

Willows whiten, aspens quiver,

Little breezes dusk and shiver

Through the wave that runs for ever

By the island in the river

Flowing down to Camelot.

Four grey wall, and grey towers,

Overlook a space of  flowers,

And the silent isle imbowers

The Lady of Shalott.

^ from Tennyson's Lady of Shalott ^

A since 1856, Lady Hawarden began to practice photography as simple amateur but, in a short time, he learned all the tricks and techniques. Lady Hawarden chose to immortalize themes and subjects that belonged to his world: his estate of Dundrum, Ireland, where she was photographing landscapes and especially his family.

In particular, the three elder daughters were the protagonists of "living pictures" made around 1862-1863; observing their transition from childhood to adolescence, she depicts the masked and preferably while reciting romantic scenes.

In the course of his work, Lady Hawarden tried always to enhance the female beauty in all its sensuality and expressiveness. However, rather singular fact, the artist never gave a precise title to his photographs. 

Despite the indications suggested by the costumes and gestures made by models, photographed scenes remain open to all interpretations.

 From modern photographer was like, Lady Hawarden was interested more in the treatment of light and its effects on transparency that no content properly narrative of his shots.

venus in fur

There would be nothing new in a woman posing as a femme fatale, surrounded by feathers and lying languidly all covered head to toe only with jewels. But in these photos taken by Irina Ionesco, the femme fatale is a child. The opulence of decorations, the excess of luxury objects, the decadent beauty and the laziness of the models were the remarkable signs of Irina Ionesco photography, obsessed by Vanitas symbols like mirrors and skulls and inspired by Victorian era.

Even if Eva was completely unaware of what her body naked could evoke, her mother knew it well and was able to exploit the ambiguity of a baby-sex symbol for easy and predictable commercial gains.

 So Eva appeared in softporn movies, heavily criticized at that time, like Spermula (1976) and Maladolescenza (1977) in which she appeared naked.

 " ROCAILLE"

...we are born under the same star.

Born in Paris 3 september 1935 to a violinist father and trapeze artist mother, Ionesco was abandoned at age four and shipped off to Romania to be brought up by her grandmother and circus family uncles.

She dreamt of being a dancer but with a tiny frame and supple body wound up a snake-lady contortionist, touring cabarets in Europe, Africa and the Middle East with two giant boas for seven years, from 15 to 22.

"I was a slave to the boas, in the end I'd had enough," she says, recalling the fastidiousness of feeding the reptiles, keeping them warm and hauling them from hotel bath to hotel bath.

... Photography came late - and haphazardly, like much of her life.

The old pre-digital-era Nikon F camera she still uses - along with tungsten lighting - dates back to Christmas of '64, a gift from her partner of the time, avant-garde Belgian artist Corneille.

"There're make-up people, stylists, but all anyone asks is for me to be me. They want my universe, my theatrical pictures, my literary memories. Anywhere I shoot, the pictures become mine."

Rabelais perfectionné

me

me

La Divina Marchesa

 from Man Ray
 more info  luisa casati

Marchesa Luisa Casati was an eccentric patroness of the arts and socialite, born into an aristocratic Italian family in 1881. As a teenager, she inherited an immense fortune that she later used to fund her transformation into a living work of art. In her ruined Venetian palace (the same that houses the Peggy Guggenheim Collection) she held legendary soirées, surrounding herself with artists and intellectuals, dabbling in the occult, wearing live snakes as jewellery and parading around the city with cheetahs on jewelled leashes. Her signature look consisted of eyes blackened with kohl, deathly pale face, and crimson-painted lips.

The Marchesa commissioned countless portraits of herself and became one of the most portrayed women in history. Her quest to immortalise herself in art was one of the many things the Marchesa had in common with the Countess of Castiglione, the notorious 19th century femme fatale she had modelled herself on. The Marchesa had lived so lavishly that despite her wealth, she was $25 million in debt at the time of her death.

old lessons and my old examination "of CRIMES VINTAGE"

During the 1920s, a photographer working for the Sydney Police Department in Australia took mug shots of all newly arrested suspects. This anonymous photographer created a series of images that are powerful portraits and also a remarkable historical record.

Comparing these vintage images to modern mug shots, the differences between the 1920s and the 2010s are striking. From the image of a dismayed and old looking Dominique Strauss-Kahn to a drunk and wasted Nick Nolte, modern mug shots, particularly of the famous, convey the message “look how far the mighty have fallen.” They are like ancient Greek morality play that reassures us that even the powerful can be brought down by their greed and lust.

Looking at these 1920s mug shots there is also a reminder of how profoundly photography had changed the world.

Prior to 1840, it was only the rich and powerful who could afford to have their portraits done. Photography eventually made it possible for ordinary people to have portraits as well but it remained a special event. The photographer and their magical, high tech studio full of lighting and tripods was like a painter’s atelier.

Even for these Australian criminals having their mug shots taken was special. Perhaps a sign of accomplishment so it was important to look good and to be at one’s most stylish and dapper. A first arrest was a rite of passage and an important step in a criminal career. We have to look no farther than the 20th century’s own “Dapper John” Gotti to see proof of that.

Remarkable Lighting
From a photographer’s point of view, the vintage mug shots are remarkable for their lighting. It is diffuse, rather soft and it gives the faces and bodies a quality of roundness and weight. That is a far cry from modern mug shots with their brutally harsh lighting that makes a suspects look the worse for wear, driving home the certainty of their guilt.

This kind of broad lighting was typical of studio photography in the 1920s and 1930s as can be seen in Arkansas photographer Mike Disframer’s, “Heber Springs” photographs.

Many of the vintage mug shots had short descriptions of the suspects and their crimes written on them by the photographer. These commentaries are often surprising.
At first glance, the image on the right of E. Falleni's worn and tired face looks like that of a factory worker. But it turns out that the E. stands for Eugenia and she had been passing as a man since 1899.  In 1914, as "Harry Crawford," she married the widow Annie Birkett, who after announcing to a relative that she had discovered "something amazing about Harry," disappeared.

Cryptically scratched into the emulsion of another photo (below) are the words “this man refused to open his eyes.” The small act of rebellion brings this image of one Thomas Bede to life; reminding me of something I had once read, “vividly legible in historical photographs: there is always a defeat of Time…” (Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida, 1980)

Thomas Bede is long dead although in this image, he, like the others, is strikingly alive. They all had lots of life ahead of them when they were photographed yet we know that they all died long ago. They are both alive and dead to us, which creates a feeling that Bathes names,“the vertigo of Time defeated.”

You could say that these vintage mug shots are a reminder that was our job as photographers may be to defeat time itself.

Mr. Mathew Brandy Studio

Daniel Webster, Brady Studio daguerreotype c. 1849

Theoretically New Yorkers knew there was a difference between outward appearance and the true self. In his diary Phillip Hone wrote a brief essay, “Dress,” in which he commented on the responsibility of older men and women to dress well: “An old house requires painting more than a new one.” But they also ought to dress appropriately, soberly, and not gaudily. He was scandalized by the refusal of his friend Daniel Webster to appear “in the only dress in which he should appear—the respectable and dignified suit of black.” Instead, Webster was fond of “tawdry,” multicolored clothes:

“I was much amused a day or two since meeting him in Wall Street, at high noon, in a bright blue Satin Vest, sprigged with gold flowers, a costume incongruous for Daniel Webster, as Ostrich feathers for a Sister of Charity, or a small Sword for a judge of Probates. There is a strange discrepancy between ‘the outward and visible form, and the inward and spiritual grace,’ the integuments and the intellect.”

Dell Upton, “Inventing the Metropolis: Civilization and Urbanity in Antebellum New York” from Art in the Empire City: New York, 1825-1861

One might be driven to think that the sour expression on Webster’s face in most paintings and photographs might be the result of the more restrained wardrobe he was forced into for decorum’s sake. This passage casts a new light on the old sourpuss. I agree, and no, I have not addressed it before. Brady makes for a fruitful leaping-off spot. The small daguerreotypes we associate with his early work are only a small part of his commercial venture. He also sold “Imperials,” larger than life-size portraits taken from daguerreotypes projected out on textured albumen paper, retouched carefully by painters in his employ.
I am somewhat resistant to viewing the aspect of the medium of photography marked by teams of technicians producing large scale works as “evolutionary,” or worse still, “revolutionary.” I could write much more on that (and might) reflecting on my experience of Avedon’s Portraits exhibition in the mid 1980s, and as counterpoint, the somewhat more guerilla tactics of Willie Middlebrook’s large scale works on long-roll paper. He is right to suggest that the reflective technologies also have a certain obligation of stewardship.

We pay a price for dressing-up much larger than the price for dressing-down.

Brady’s famous Daguerreotype of Dolley Madison.
Scratched and damaged, yet still an invaluable link with America’s past.
from James D. Horan, Timothy O’Sullivan: America’s Forgotten Photographer, 1966

. . .The want of absolute truth manifest in the finest portraits, is thought to be compensated by an ideal beauty, which, if not perpetuating the sitter's happiest expression, at least suppresses the main defects in his features. Youth is given to age; to the pallid cheek color; brightness to the ordinary eye; and new and fashionable drapery to complete the picture.

The heliographer has none of these advantages in his favor. His work may, and often does disfigure, but it never flatters the human countenance. If, however, an instantaneous process is employed, and a minute portrait is taken with a small lens, or a large one at a remote distance, and is subsequently enlarged to life-size, we shall have absolute truth in the portrait. And who would not prefer an absolutely true portrait of Demosthenes or Cicero, of Paul or Luther, of Milton or of Newton, to the finest representations of them which time may have spared ?

           Sir David Brewster, quoted in M.A. Root’s The Camera and the Pencil, 1864

Our belief is that the American photographers are going ahead of the English and French, as much in the collodion processes as they have in the daguerreotype.