Lewis Carroll and Photography
Lewis Carroll became interested in photography in the infancy of this scientific art form. He was a man of infinite patience and one who paid attention to the smallest detail. These qualities were mandatory to be a photographer in the 1850’s. The wet collodion process was demanding indeed. It is thought that he gave up photography when the dry developing process came to the fore, because he felt it made photography so easy that almost anyone could do it (like the introduction of digital photography in our own time?). He is considered one of the best amateur photographers of his time, particularly in his images of Victorian children, but he also photographed friends, family, fellow scholars, and noted figures of his day, including Alfred Lord Tennyson, and members of the Rossetti family.
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Photography by Carroll
- Photos at HRC University of Texas at Austin
- Photos of Alice Liddell plus many others. Thanks to J. David Sapir at the University of Virginia.
- Xie Kitchin with parasol. This image is large (over 1 MB). Carroll once posed the question “How do you achieve excellence in photography?” and then provided this answer: “Put Xie in front of a Lens.”
- Xie Kitchin with violin
- Photographs from the Princeton University collection . This is a great collection of Dodgson’s photographs. Keep clicking on the small images until you get to the large image.
- Photos of Alice Liddell at the National Portrait Gallery (by Carroll, Julia Margaret Cameron, and other contemporaries)
- Not any photo a Russian site
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti
- Original photos for sale at photo central
- Carroll’s aunts playing chess (scroll to bottom of page)
- Queen Eleanor and Fair Rosamund
- A photograph and a negative from the National Museum of Photography, Film, and Television
A Sampling of Books About Carroll’s Photography
- Lewis Carroll, Photographer by Helmut Gernsheim (the first major critical appreciation)
- Reflections in a Looking-Glass: A Centennial Celebration of Lewis Carroll, Photographer by Morton Cohen
- Lewis Carroll, Photographer by Edward Wakeling & Roger Taylor
- Dreaming in Pictures: The Photography of Lewis Carroll by Douglas R. Nickel
- A review of the two books above, and discussion of Carroll’s photography by Sadi Ranson-Polizzoti
- An article in the NY Times about Nickel’s book and Carroll’s photography
Photographs/Images of Carroll
- Various Images of Carroll, including a humorous pen and ink self-portrait
Related Photography Items
- An article by Colin Ford
- Carroll’s wet collodion photographic outfit
- Photo of photographic equipment – Carroll would have travelled with all of this.
- Polixeni Papapetrou’s photos of her daughter after Carroll:
- An article on Victorian photography London Independent 4/27/00
- Camerawocky (A comic homage)
- A playful article on the sale of Carroll’s photographs
- An essay by Edward Wakeling
- Category: Photographs of Children by Lewis Carroll
- The Abelardo Morell Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (with photo-based illustrations using Tenniel images)
- A photo project by Renold Rose
- A gallery of fairytale images by Diana Elliott
- Vogue magazine fashion slide show
Carroll’s Own Humorous View of Photography
- Hiawatha’s photographing with illustrations by A.B. Frost.
- Hiawatha’s photographing with photographs.
- A Photographer’s Day Out (An amusing essay; look under “Bruno’s Revenge and Other Stories”)