31
distinctly literary character. The term amateur implies
leisure ... our goal is to meet the needs of educated and
intelligent readers.
Amateur Photographer aimed to educate and encour-
age all levels of amateur photographers, including the
neophyte. The journal provided articles on technical
matters, and every aspect of the photographic process
was discussed, from printing techniques to equipment
reviews. Readers technical questions were answered
each week by the staff in an “Answers and Queries”
column, and by 1889 the editor reported that 2000
questions had been answered the year before. The au-
dience was primarily British (including Australia and
the British colonies) but questions came in from the
United States as well. Each week the journal would
publish minutes of the various (and numerous) meet-
ings of clubs and societies in England, and in fact the
journal was publicized as the Offi cial Organ of the
Amateur Photographic Societies of Great Britain and
the Colonies. At various times competitions were held,
with the winner’s prints published along with a critique
of the aesthetic and technical merits of the print. The
occasional column “Holiday Resorts and Photographic
Haunts,” in which contributors would describe a recent
trip and the photographs they took, encouraged travel
to interesting locales to photograph.
The fi rst editor of the journal was J. Harris Stone. He
was a member of and exhibited with the Royal Photo-
graphic Society. By 1889, Charles W. Hastings and T.C.
Hepworth, well known author of books on lantern slides
for amateurs, were joint editors. The journal took up art
and aesthetic issues from the start, and the fi rst decade
was the site of some of the Peter Henry Emerson/H.P.
Robinson debate. In 1893, A. Horsley Hinton, a found-
ing member of the Linked Ring takes over until his death
in 1908. The appointment of Hinton is signifi cant; he
brings a more ardent interest in fi ne art photography,
and during the next 15 years Amateur Photographer
becomes the primary journal for the aesthetic photog-
raphy movement in Britain.
In January 1889 the editor reported that circulation
had doubled and he hoped to print 10,000 by the end
of the year. The title still exists, and although it has
gone through numerous changes in publisher and edi-
tor, it still serves the same audience—the enthusiastic
amateur.
Becky Simmons
See also: Emerson, Peter Henry; Robinson, Henry
Peach; and Brotherhood of the Linked Ring.
Further Reading
Buerger, Janet. The Last Decade: The Emergence of Art Photog-
raphy in the 1890’s. Rochester, N.Y.: International Museum
of Photography at George Eastman House, 1984.
Coe, Brian. The Snapshot Photograph: The Rise of Popular Pho-
tography, 1888–1939. London: Ash and Grant, 1977.
Eskind, Robert Wall. The Amateur Photographic Exchange Club
(1861–1863): The Profi ts of Association. Master’s thesis,
Unviersity of Texas at Austin, 1982.
Gernsheim, Helmut and Alison. History of Photography. London:
Thames and Hudson, 1969.
Greenough, Sarah, “Of Charming Glens, Graceful Glades, and
Frowning Cliffs’: The Economic Incentives, Social Induce-
ments, and Aesthetic Issues of American Pictorial Photog-
raphy, 1880–1902,” in Photography in Nineteenth-Century
America, ed. Martha A. Sandweiss, (Fort Worth, Tex.: Amon
Carter Musem, 1991).
Griffi n, Michael. Amateur Photography and Pictorial Aesthetics:
Infl uences of Organization and Industry on Cultural Produc-
tion. Phd. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1987.
Handy, Ellen. Pictorial Effect Naturalistic Vision: The Photo-
graphs and Theories of Henry Peach Robinson and Peter
Henry Emerson. Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum, 1994.
Homer, William Innes. Pictorial Photography in Philadelphia:
The Pennsylvania Academy’s Salons, 1898–1901. Philadel-
phia, Penna: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1984.
Meinwald, Dan. “The Calotype Clubs: Gentleman-Amatuers and
the New ‘Art Science,’” Afterimage, Feb. 1976, 10–12.
Mensel, Robert E., “Kodakers Lying in Wait: Amateur Pho-
tography and the Right of Privacy in New York,” American
Quarterly, vol. 43, (March 1991), 24–45.
Panzer, Mary. Philadelphia Naturalistic Photography, 1865–1906.
New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1982.
Ruby, Jay. “The Wheelman and the Snapshooter” in Shadow and
Substance: Essays in Honor of Heinz Henisch.
Le Salon de photographie: Les écoles pictorialistes en Europe et
aux Etats-Unis vers 1900. Paris: Musée Rodin, 1993.
Seiberling, Grace and Carolyn Bloore. Amateurs, Photography,
and the Mid-Vicotiran Imagination. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press in association with the International Museum
of Photography at George Eastman House, 1986.
Snyder, Joel, “Gentleman Photographers & the History of Pho-
tography,” in Robert Lyons, Gentlemen photographers : the
work of Loring Underwood and Wm. Lyman Underwood.
Florence, Mass.: Solio Foundation; Boston: distributed by
Northeastern University Press, c. 1987.
Sternberger, Paul Spencer. Between Amateur and Aesthete: The
Legitimization of Photography as Art in America, 1880–1900.
Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2001.
Wigoder, Meir Joel. Curbstone Sketches: Photography, art and
leisure during the modern urban transformation of New
York City, 1890–1920. Phd. Diss., University of California,
Berkeley, 1994.
Wilson, Michael. Pictorialism in California: Photographs, 1900-
1940. Malibu, Calif.: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1994.AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHERS,
CAMERA CLUBS, AND SOCIETIES
The history of 19th century photography is dominated by
amateur photographers. This designation is not applied
in retrospect, very early the literature of photography
uses the term self-consciously to distinguish a certain
type of practitioner. An amateur’s interest in the medium
fell outside professional and fi nancial concerns. Some
could be considered casual hobbyists, but many made
photography an avocation, a serious pursuit to which