Henry Peach Robinson

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Robinson's Fading Away

Henry Peach Robinson (b. Ludlow July 9, 1830 – d. February 21, 1901) was a British pioneer Pictorialist photographer who made combination prints that joined multiple negatives to form a single image (photomontage). According to his letters, he was influenced by the paintings of J.M.W. Turner. At the age of 19 he practised as an artist, and exhibited an oil painting at the Royal Academy of Art in 1852. That same year he began taking photographs, and five years later decided to open a studio in Leamington Spa, selling portraits. He later established another studio in Kent. He was introduced to photography by Hugh Welch Diamond who introduced him to the calotype process. He also learned how to use collodion. In 1857 he abandoned book-selling to become a professional photographer. One of the most prominent Art photographers of his day, he is often considered conventional, even academic. His first and the most famous composite picture, "Fading Away" (1858) was both popular and fashionably morbid. He was a follower of the pre-Raphaelites and was influenced by the aesthetic views of John Ruskin. In his Pre-Raphaelite phase he attempted to realise moments of timeless significance in a "mediaeval" setting, anticipating the work of Julia Margaret Cameron, Burne-Jones and the Symboilists. In 1864, at the age of thirty-four, Robinson was forced to give up photography because of a condition brought on by exposure to toxic chemicals used in the photographic process. Robinson kept up his involvement, writing the influential essay “Pictorial Effect in Photography, Being Hints on Composition and Chiaroscuro for Photographers,” published in 1868. Resigning from The Photographic Society in 1891, In 1891, he helped found the photographic society, the Linked Ring. In his Pre-Raphaelite phase he attempted to realise moments of timeless significance in a "mediaeval" setting, anticipating the work of Julia Margaret Cameron, Burne-Jones and the Symboilists. From 1862 until 1891, HP Robinson was a Council Member of The Photographic Society [of London], which subsequently became The Royal Photographic Society.