Henry Peach Robinson (1830 - 1901)

Henry Peach Robinson (1830 - 1901)

 He was an English Pictorialist photographer best known for his pioneering of combination printing - joining multiple negatives to form a single image, the precursor to photomontage. According to his letters, he was influenced by the paintings of J.M.W. Turner.

He joined vigorously in contemporary debates in the photographic press and associations about the legitimacy of 'art photography' and in particular the combining of separate images into one.

Fading Away 1858

A combination print showing a dying girl attended by grief-stricken parents. The print was made from 5 negatives. Robinson stated that the model "was a fine healthy girl of about 14, and the picture was done to see how near death she could be made to look". The public was shocked. Because it was photographed, it was implied that it was a truthful representation, and so the scene was viewed literally. There was widespread criticism of the work.

At a time when painters were taking their canvases outdoors, robinson sometimes used studio techniques like painted backdrops, shrubs on rolling platforms, and a brook improvised from the darkroom drain. He told the beginning photographer that:

Any "dodge, trick and conjuration," of any kind is open to the photographers use so that it belongs to his art, and is not false to nature...It is his imperative duty to avoid the mean, the bare and the ugly, and to aim to elevate his subject, to avoid awkward forms, and correct the picturesque.

Robinson's When the Day's Work is Done (1877). Combination print made from six different negatives.

She Never Told Her Love

Robinson habitually began by drawing a sketch of the final composition. If it was a combination print, he posed the models separately. He used props in a studio(as opposed to outdoors)to control the final image.

HENRY PEACH ROBINSON. A Holiday in the Wood