Lewis Carroll, Photographer

Roger Taylor's thorough and sophisticated discussion of Carroll as a photographic artist and as a prominent member of Victorian society reveals the man as never before, illuminating his relationships with the children he photographed in light of the idealism and social conventions of the day. This text, illustrated with exquisite tritone plates, is followed by Edward Wakeling's fully illustrated and thoroughly annotated catalogue of the entire Princeton University Library collection. It features, in addition to a trove of loose prints, four rare albums made by Carroll himself to showcase his work to friends, family, and potential sitters. Reproduced in album order, these images offer new insight into how Carroll thought about his work--and how he wanted it to be seen.

Compelling portraits of Alice Liddell and other children are presented alongside those of eminent Victorians such as Alfred Tennyson and William Holman Hunt, as well as evocative landscapes, narrative tableaux, and wonderfully strange studies of anatomical skeletons. The catalogue is followed by a chronological register of every known Carroll photograph--a remarkable resource for anyone studying his career as a photographer.

This sumptuous volume is the definitive work on Carroll's photography. All who admire Carroll and his writing, as well as everyone interested in Victorian England or the history of photography, will find it both essential and irresistible.

The best defence pf Carroll's relationship with the nude child has been offered by Hugues Lebailly and Karoline Leach, who both have shown that we have misunderstood Carroll by failing to set him in the correct social background of his time.
Basically, during the Victorian age EVERYONE as making nude studies of children, and Carroll was merely being trendy when he did the same. The mistake as been to forget this and see his actions in isolation.

This revelation of the 'Victorian Cult of the Child' has revolutionised our understanding of Carroll, but Taylor in this book makes almost no use of it at all.

Instead he revives very weak and illogical arguments to 'defend' Dodgson, claiming, for example, that Dodgson didn't take many nude pictures, as if this in itself precludes the suspicion of paedophilia.

It doesn't. In fact it's a pale and dishonest argument. The only thing that defends Dodgson against paedophilia is the research of Leach and Lebailly which Taylor so oddly refuses to use to any extent. The result is muddled, dishonest and already out of date.

For the only serious analysis of Lewis Carroll's relationship with the nude child see Leach 'In the Shadow of the Dreamchild'. But if you just want to look at nice pics, then enjoy this book.


The Time has Come....Finally!   April 23, 2002
 15 out of 15 found this review helpful

I've been waiting for this very book for quite some time now. Carroll's photography has never been collected in a full form like many other photographers. Previous books have been light on material and all too heavy on the photographs of young child-friends. This book gives a more even account of Carroll's photography---even going so far as presenting the photographs as he did so in his own albums. Rather than classify his photographs, his albums show a wondrous variety of images---a skeleton of a fish, a landscape, a child-friend, a famous painter, a sculpture, etc.... Though it concentrates on Carroll's one hobby, Roger Taylor's essay is as good as any biography, being a hundred or so pages long. Edward Wakeling contributes insightful captions to each photograph in the Princeton Collection---for all are included! What more could one ask for? Wakeling, one of the leading experts on Carroll with a database of information, even offers his list of all photographs taken by Carroll, a list that will be continually updated. He even gives his email address for those who may have lost photographs.
An indispensable book for the researcher and a delight for the casual photography fan.