1202
books and on the pages of the illustrated press. Profes-
sional organizations like the Architectural Photography
Association marketed his images, and so did commercial
ones like the steamship companies, which offered en-
graved versions of his photographs as souvenirs.
Robertson’s eye was caught by buildings, monu-
ments, structures, the play of light on carved and mod-
elled surfaces. His photographs of Grecian antiquities
and scriptural sites in the Holy Land presented objects
which may not have been seen before by his viewers,
but which were already steeped for them in a thousand
associations. As far as possible he tried to isolate the
venerated subject matter from the distractions of con-
temporary life, with just a few small human fi gures to
give a sense of scale. Even before he set foot in Athens
or Jerusalem, he knew well what his camera must do. Its
task was not to startle or surprise but to pay homage.
In the Crimea, Robertson was constrained by no such
expectations. One of the fi rst war reporters, he had to
establish tradition, not to follow it. The pictures for
which he is famous are silent witnesses to the cost of
confl ict. No dead bodies are shown, but the devastation
of military fortifi cations and civilian buildings tells its
sobering story. In Constantinople also, Robertson was
free to tell a new tale, not to illustrate an old one. The city
was fascinating to Westerners but occupied no special
place in the collective consciousness. His camera could
show both the architectural marvels of the place and
the mundane life swirling around them. His record of
the city earned him the title by which he is best known,
“Robertson of Constantinople.”
Bridget A. Henisch
Heinz K. Henisch
Biography
James Robertson, born in 1813–1814, in Middlesex.
was the son of Thomas James Robertson, and he was
christened in the Church of England. In 1855 he married
Matilda Beato, and they had three daughters. Trained in
London as a coin engraver, he spent forty years in Con-
stantinople at the Imperial Mint. On his retirement there
in 1881, he and his family went to Japan, where he died
in 1888. Active as a photographer from 1853 to 1867,
he exhibited examples of his work in Britain through-
out that period, at the Royal Society of Arts (1854),
the Photographic Society of London (1855–1858), the
Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition (1857), etc. His
Crimean photographs were on display in London and
some provincial cities from December 1855 to Decem-
ber 1856. His fi rst published album of views appeared in
1853, his last in 1864. Engraved versions of his pictures
were shown from 1853 onward in several illustrated
journals, in Britain and continental Europe.
See also: Beato, Felice.
Further Reading
Henisch, B.A. and H.K., “James Robertson of Constantinople,”
History of Photography, vol. 8, no. 4, 1984, 299–313.
Henisch, B.A. and H.K., “James Robertson of Constantinople,
a Chronology,” History of Photography, vol. 14, no. 1, 1990,
23–32.
Henisch, B.A. and H.K., “James Robertson’s Crimean War Cam-
paign,” History of Photography, in print for Autumn 2002.
Lawson, J., James Robertson, Photographer of Istanbul. Cata-
logue of an Exhibition organised by The British Council
in association with the Scottish National Portrait Gallery,
Edinburgh, 1991.
Osman, C., “The Later Years of James Robertson,” History of
Photography, vol. 16, no. 1, 1992, 72–73.
Öztuncay.B., James Robertson, Pioneer of Photography in the
Ottoman Empire, Eren, Istanbul, 1992.
Öztuncay, B., “James Robertson; A Scottish Artist in the Ottoman
Capital,” Scottish Photography Bulletin, vol. 2, 1991, 3–10.ROBINSON, HENRY PEACH (1830–1901)
British photographer
Robinson was born in Ludlow, Shropshire, on 9 July- He was the fi rst child of John, a Master of the
National School of the Church of England, and Eliza
Robinson. Young Robinson had artistic ambitions, but as
there was no formal art education available in Ludlow,
he taught himself to draw and paint. Robinson’s father,
however, was unconvinced of his ability to make a liv-
ing as an artist, so Robinson went to work for various
printers and booksellers in Ludlow, London and Leam-
ington for the years 1844–1856. Nevertheless, Robinson
continued to draw and paint during these years, and he
produced hundreds of watercolors, pen and ink draw-
ings, and etchings. The acme of his artistic achievement
came in 1852 when the Royal Academy accepted his
painting View of the Teme near Ludlow for their annual
exhibition.
In 1851 Robinson learned the daguerreotype process
from a visiting photographer, and he experimented
with photogenic drawings and calotypes, and then later
with the collodion process. Dr Hugh Diamond visited
Robinson in 1854 and enthusiastically encouraged
Robinson’s photography. Robinson continued to refi ne
his photographic techniques, and in 1856 he decided to
pursue commercial photography as a profession. With
a loan of £100, Robinson opened a photography studio
in Leamington on 12 January 1857.
Robinson is most well known for his attempt to
create artistic compositions through photography. Bas-
ing his photographic art technique and compositional
style upon principals of academic painting, Robinson
produced large prints for the annual exhibitions of the
Photographic Society. In 1858 Robinson exhibited Fad-
ing Away, which was controversial for two reasons: its
subject matter and its compositional technique. Some
critics felt that its subject, a young middle-class lady