Francis Frith | |
|---|---|
 Self-portrait in Middle Eastern costume, c. 1857 | |
| Born | 7 October 1822 Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England |
| Died | 25 February 1898 (aged 75) Cannes, France |
| Nationality | English |
| Known for | Photographer and publisher |
| Movement | Orientalist |
Francis Frith (also spelled Frances Frith, 7 October 1822 – 25 February 1898) was an English photographer and businessman.[1] Francis Frith & Co., the company he founded in 1860 with the initial goal of photographing every town and village in England, quickly became the largest photographic publishers in the world and eventually amassed a collection of 330,000 negatives covering over 7,000 population centres across Great Britain and Ireland.[2]
Frith was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, attending Quaker schools at Ackworth and Quaker Camp Hill in Birmingham (c. 1828–1838), before he started in the cutlery business. He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1843, recuperating over the next two years.[3] In 1850 he started a photographic studio in Liverpool, known as Frith & Hayward. A successful grocer, and later, printer, Frith fostered an interest in photography, becoming a founding member of the Liverpool Photographic Society in 1853.[4] Frith sold his companies in 1855 in order to dedicate himself entirely to photography. He journeyed to the Middle East on three occasions between 1856 and 1860, taking with him three glass plate cameras, the largest of which measured 16" x 20".[5] He used the collodion process, a major technical achievement in hot and dusty conditions.
- ^ Scan of the birth certificate, Public Record Office
- ^ Jackson, Sarah (12 August 2000). "House of Cards". Amateur Photographer. pp. 31–34. ISSN 0002-6840.
- ^ "Francis Frith". MoMA. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
- ^ The current organisation called "Liverpool Photographic Society" claims to have been founded in 1952. The South Liverpool Photographic Society Archived 10 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 15 June 2008.
- ^ Watterson, Barbara & Pickavance, Kathleen M. (1984). "The Photographs of Francis Frith (1822-1898): A Victorian View of Ancient Egypt". Archaeology. Vol. 37, no. 6. New York: Archaeological Institute of America. pp. 48–53. ISSN 0003-8113 – via JSTOR.