It’s true. I bought a time machine. And I got it on e-bay. But let me begin at the beginning. It all started in my favourite East End flea market. I was browsing the stalls when I spotted some old stereoview photographs. Normally I’d pass them by, but these particular views reminded me strongly of the work of E J Bellocq, one of my favourite photographers. Clearly taken in the early 1900s, they feature slightly risqué images of women dressing or having an impromptu party at their college dorm.
Clothed in night dresses or under garments, they wear the fancy stockings so favoured by Bellocq’s...
I’ve been collecting Victorian and Edwardian photographs for quite a few years now, but I’ve always shunned the popular colourised images from this era as just a little bit tacky. I had a handful in my collection as curiosities only. Recently, though, I’ve been trying to perfect the art of hand-spotting photographic prints using correcting inks and while playing with the green-shaded olive-tones put some washes on a few of my own reject photos. Then, by chance, a few weeks back I came across a small collection of hand-coloured Edwardian studio images in an East London flea market; my interest...
I’ve said before that my photography is influenced by the earliest purveyors of the medium: the Victorian and Edwardian studio photographers who shot nudes and historical reconstructions to peddle as “artists’ aids”, used as an alternative to life models. For obvious reasons, many of the original buyers had never held a paintbrush in their life! Considered pornographers in their time, the images they produced would today be considered moderate in the extreme. But recreating the look and feel of these photographs is a challenge.
There are many aspects to replicating this early...