Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is a photographic photography by the Impressionist artist Robert Mac Pherson. It dates from 1850 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
About this work
This untitled photo is by Robert Mac Pherson around 1850. It lands between Impressionism and Realism, two movements often mixed in early photo work.
William Lyndon Smith won a silver medal in Edinburgh in 1858 for a photo called The Rising Mist. Smith also got an honorable mention in London in 1862 for prints made with wet collodion on glass.
Check out the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Overview
Though he worked as a gentleman amateur, his work achieved recognition at several major exhibitions in Britain, earning both medals and honorable mentions.
William Lyndon Smith (1836‑1865) was an English photographer active in the 1850s, known for his architectural images, particularly of ruined abbeys and churches. Though he worked as a gentleman amateur, his work achieved recognition at several major exhibitions in Britain, earning both medals and honorable mentions. The surviving prints are exceptionally scarce, having remained within his family until recently.
Context
Smith presented photographs at a series of society shows: Birmingham and London in 1857, Edinburgh and London in 1858, Glasgow in 1859, and again in London in 1862‑63. He also contributed to the Architectural Photographic Association (London, 1858) and the International Exhibition (London, 1862). At Edinburgh he received a silver medal for "The Rising Mist," and at the 1862 International Exhibition he was awarded an honorable‑mention certificate.
Technique & Style
Employing the wet collodion process on glass negatives—a method introduced in 1851—Smith produced fine albumen prints noted for their clarity and tonal range. His preferred subjects were architectural, focusing on medieval ruins and ecclesiastical structures, which allowed him to explore light, texture, and atmospheric effects within the constraints of early photographic chemistry.
Legacy
Because Smith printed primarily for exhibition, only a handful of his works survive, catalogued as items E.276‑2008 to E.302‑2008. These prints are likely unique and have been well preserved by the Smith family. They illustrate the artistic ambitions of mid‑nineteenth‑century photographers before the medium became commercialized, and they stand alongside the better‑known outputs of contemporaries such as Roger Fenton, Benjamin Brecknell Turner, and Francis Bedford.
Artist & collection
Artist
Robert MacPherson spent his life wandering Rome’s back alleys with a clunky wooden camera, photographing crumbling walls and stray cats like they were old friends.
