Photography, thy name is disappointment!
Originally Posted: October 2012
Recently I was talking to a friend and said that there’s never been a better time to be a ‘Silver Surfer’ – but, strictly, there’s never been any other time to be a SS.
When I started my Engineering Degree back in 1972, the computer course lasted only one week and was optional (the week before Xmas) whilst far more time and effort was put into technical drawing (3 hours a week, and a 6 hour exam). But computers and computing seemed to explode soon afterwards – and 4 years later I’d started a career, a passion, a specialism in Computational Fluid Dynamics – and my technical drawing skill was redundant. Then the Internet came along, followed later by the grey hair and retirement – and suddenly I’m a SS enjoying access to the proliferation of material that has been digitised and is freely available – everything from the 1911 Census in the UK to a recreation of Prokudin-Gorskii’s photographic survey of Russia in the early 1900s, in the Library of Congress.
Yesterday I stumbled on – yes, I think it’s this totally accidental bumbling and explosion of information that excites me about the Internet – an item related to Lady Elizabeth Eastlake the owner of the brilliant statement I've quoted above, ‘Photography, thy name is disappointment!’
Lady Elizabeth Eastlake
by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson
A calotype, an early type of photograph, from the 1840s,
in the National Portrait Gallery collection
I was reading ‘Photography: A Very Short Introduction’ by Steve Edwards and he referred to an essay that Lady E wrote in 1857. So I Googled her and (this is the Amazing-Silver-Surfer-Bit) found a complete facsimile of her entire essay in the London Quarterly Review, April 1857, pp. 442-468!
Wow such detail!
Another amazing thing. She quotes Schiller verbatim and, three cheers for the Internet, I got an instant translation from the original German – though I’ve no idea (yet) who Schiller is, and no idea if the translation is accurate either!
But you’ll not be surprised to know that when I tried to find out more about Lady E, the first fact I found was about who she had married (Sir Charles E, the first President of the Royal Photographic Society) – yet the level of understanding of the photographic process that she exhibits in her essay suggests she was far more than the woman who tidied up after him and made his sandwiches!
‘Ten Historic Female Scientists You Should Know’
Later I started thinking about female scientists and that set me off again. I found The Smithsonian’s list of ‘Ten Historic Female Scientists You Should Know’ which includes Caroline Herschel. Their entry on her says she was ‘a brilliant astronomer in her own right’ and ends with:
She died in 1848 at age 97 after receiving many honors in her field, including a gold medal from the Royal Astronomical Society.
Yet over half the entries I found on the Internet Search page included a reference to her older brother Sir William – even though these snippets were typically less than 25 words.
Caroline Herschel
Frontispiece to
Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel
By Caroline Lucretia Herschel (1750-1848)
There have obviously been competent women scientists and engineers throughout time – more numerous during WW2, less common during the 1950s and 60s, emerging again in the 70s (and I’m proud to count myself as one of this number) and, hopefully, quite unexceptional today.
But maybe all us 'competent' younger sisters of the world still need to link arms. Me and Caroline Herschel – and every kid sister from the intervening years – everyone who ever felt their identity was subsumed by their brother's. Or, like Lady E, existed only as someone's wife. And unite with every woman – whether scientist, engineer or artist – who finds herself on a list of the "Overlooked and Forgotten".
And I suppose this blog has exemplified another thing we all know about the Internet – how easy it is to get distracted. When I was a little kid I used to collect stamps from Magyar Posta and other ‘far away places with strange sounding names’. But if I wanted to find out more about these exotic lands, I had to ask someone to take me to the local library, where I'd consult the Children’s Encyclopaedia and the Atlas.
Now I’m a big kid it’s easier and I can fool myself that I’m engaged in meaningful enquiry. But it’s not really different – it's just as random, just as erratic – just quicker. And a blog that starts with the quotation, ‘Photography, thy name is disappointment’ and implies it might have something to do with the History of Photography, ends with me linking arms with women round the world.
But next time, when I start writing about the History of Photography, I’ll stay on plot – well, I'll try.
Take care
Paddy xx