Emma Johnston - a wet plate Vivian Maier?

[Struan Gray]

Bonhams auction house has an interesting collection of 350 mostly albumen and salt prints by Emma Johnston, an amateur photographer working in Hampstead in the mid-nineteenth century.

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21764/lot/87/

The marketing makes for interesting reading. My favourite is the photograph of the fast asleep baby. That, and the scowling poppet strangling a rose.

[Domingo A. Siliceo]

Interesting link. Thanks.

I like a lot some of the images showed in Bonham's page. Specially the group images and, over all, that with two women in the window.

Prices seems to me high, but I'm not an auction expert.

[Justin Cormack]

Interesting link. Thanks.

I like a lot some of the images showed in Bonham's page. Specially the group images and, over all, that with two women in the window.

Prices seems to me high, but I'm not an auction expert.

Seems reasonable - at about £30 each they will alas probably be resold individually rather than kept as a collection.

[Struan Gray]

I'm not a collector either. My feeling is that this is early enough that it has historical value above and beyond any artistic merit. Hampstead has no lack of wealthy residents interested in local history, for example, and the hand-written contemporary catalogue only adds to the charm.

In an ideal world it would be bought and donated to the V&A.

[jp]

I see some technical aptitude to make photos in a challenging time. I don't see any creativity or visualization we attribute to Vivian Maier.

[Struan Gray]

I don't think either of these two women challenged the visual conventions of their time. In some ways, that's what makes the story of how their work is perceived and marketed so interesting.

[Brassai]

I don't think either of these two women challenged the visual conventions of their time. In some ways, that's what makes the story of how their work is perceived and marketed so interesting.



I don't disagree with your premise, but the fact that women were making photos did challenge the conventions of the time.

[Struan Gray]

Yes, and no.

In Europe photography was seen as a suitable occupation for a lady. So much so, that running a portrait studio quickly became one of the very few ways of making money as an independent businesswoman which was regarded as respectable. Quite a few of the early studios I have come across were run by women.

Of course, the neglected female artist plays to what are now standard marketing - and gossiping/chattering tropes too.