Photographs

The Edwardians photo gallery holds a small collection of photographic images, most of which were taken in the period 1880-1918. They represent a selection of scenes from everyday working and family life and the content reflects many of the themes described in the transcribed interviews. We hope to expand the collection in due course, to build up a picture gallery that reflects the widespread production of still and moving images during the Edwardian period. Additionally, in our collection we will capture different perspectives of Edwardian society. One should bear in mind that certain factors governed the type of photographs that were taken during this period. Technology, of course, played a prime role because most cameras were bulky, requiring a period of preparation and setting up before use. Consequently, many images from this era are staged in some way, either with the subjects pausing and waiting patiently for the exposure to happen or with the photographer deliberately arranging a scene for a particular effect. The use of artificial lighting or flash photography, outside of the photographer's studio, was rare. This means interior photographs are outnumbered by scenes with subjects standing or sitting outside in daylight.

Some photographers also emulated fine art traditions by taking the world around them and creating an equivalent of picturesque genre paintings. These often focused on rural life and on the lower classes, especially the very poor. However this school collided with the still evolving genre of documentary photography which, ironically, took an interest in similar subject matter, such as slums, low-life, the workplace and social events, albeit for entirely different reasons.

Like the qualitative accounts that form the basis of the Edwardians collection, photographic images can give a sense of the past in immediately recognisable terms. Despite potential problems of interpretation, the photographs allow us to instantly connect with the physical environment of the past and to see conditions as they looked and as they were experienced by people at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the new century.