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]
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]