John Thomson: Street Life in London Contents Fragments Photographer Theme PhV Checklist When in 1877 the book Street Life in London[1] was published it included 36 Woodburytypes, an early photographic process, illustrated by John Thomson[2] to accompany the texts by Adolphe Smith. In some of the photographs the person seems to have been carefully selected and their clothing and paraphernalia laid out to create a visually agreeable picture. They are posed portraits of street life rather than the unguarded captured moment.
Footnotes
- Λ John Thomson & Adolphe Smith, [1877], Street Life in London, (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington); Reprint - John Thomson & Adolphe Smith, 1969, Street Life in London, (New York: Bernard Blom) [Facsimile edition].
For the context - Jeff Rosen, 1993, ‘Posed as Rogues: The Crisis of Photographic Realism in John Thomson's Street Life in London‘, Image, vol. 36, no. 3/4, pp. 9-39; Emily Kathryn Morgan, 2014, Street Life in London: Context and Commentary, (MuseumsEtc)
- Λ John Thomson travelled widely and his books include works on Cambodia, China, Formosa, and Indo-China.
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