Victorian photography echoes paintings

From the 1st December the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Wirral, will be displaying over forty original Victorian photographs that show experimentation with the then relatively new medium of photography.

The Victorian Vision exhibition provides interesting points of comparison to many of the paintings on view in the gallery. The photograph above, 'May Day' by Julia Margaret Cameron, echoes a Pre-Raphaelite painting and arresting landscapes also on display by BB Turner and Roger Fenton follow in the great tradition of British landscape painting.

The exhibition is divided into five sections - early works, landscape, documentary, women photographers and portraits. The images, from the V&A’s collection, also include those by Lady Hawarden, Francis Frith and Robert Howlett.

Sandra Penketh, head of the Lady Lever Art Gallery, talks more about the Victorian exhibition, ‘All of the images are incredibly beautiful and powerful. The achievement of these early photographers is quite amazing when you consider that the whole process was still experimental. It’s easy to forget the often arduous and time-consuming nature of photography in the Victorian period when you are faced with the sheer brilliance of these pictures.’

For more information visit www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk