James Lafayette

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Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet, with Yorick's skull. (Photographer: James Lafayette. c. 1885–1900).

James Lafayette was the pseudonym of James Stack Lauder (1853–1923).^[1] He was a late Victorian and Edwardian portrait photographer, and managing director from 1898 to 1923 of a company specialising in society photographs, Lafayette Ltd.^[1]

In 1887, he became the first Irish photographer to be granted the royal warrant.^[2]

[edit] Collections

While thousands of images were credited to Lafayette studios, only those 649 photographs which were registered for copyright bear his signature as author.^[2] These are now held in the Public Record Office, in Kew, London.^[2] The Lafayette Collection at London's Victoria & Albert Museum consists of 3,500 glass plate and celluloid negatives.^[3] A further collection of 30,000 to 40,000 nitrate negatives is at London's National Portrait Gallery.^[3] Further collections are in the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle; and in private hands in Dublin.^[2]

[edit] Notes and references

^ ^a ^b Anon. (1990).
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Meadows (2004)
^ ^a ^b Meadows (1990).

Anon, 1990. V&A. Brief history of the Lafayette Studio Retrieved: 5 January 2008. London: Victoria & Albert Museum.
Meadows, Jane. 1990. V&A. James Lafayette biography Retrieved: 5 January 2008. London: Victoria & Albert Museum.
Meadows, Jane. 2004. "Lauder, James Stack (1853–1923)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Online edition Retrieved: 6 January 2008.