Reflections in a Looking Glass: A Centennial Celebration of Lewis Carroll, Photographer

by Morton N. Cohen, Roy Flukinger (Afterword), Mark Haworth-Booth (Contributor)

A groundbreaking book, the only volume of first-class reproductions of Lewis Carroll's photographs.

Published on the one hundredth anniversary of the death of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), Reflections in a Looking Glass presents Carroll's remarkable photography. Richly illustrated, this important book presents seldom-seen works-most of them formal portraits and staged scenes that combine Carroll's famous childlike sense of play with the Victorian propriety that characterized his age.

Also included in Reflections are selected drawings by Lewis Carroll and by John Tenniel, who illustrated the original Alice books. The central text by Morton N. Cohen, the world's leading authority on Lewis Carroll, provides an in-depth account of Carroll's experimentations in the new medium of photography. His hobby opened the door to many of his "child friends" as well as to leading artistic and literary figures of the day, all of whom came to Carroll's studio to sit for their portraits.

Excerpts from Carroll's diaries combine with Cohen's annotated captions to make this book an invaluable resource. The book also includes a Preface by Mark Haworth-Booth, curator of photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Afterword is by Roy Flukinger, curator of photographs at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin, the source collection for much of the material in this extraordinary book.

Genres: Photography, Art

143 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 1998

Reviews

[Sarah Kester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles Dodgson, also known as Lewis Carroll had so many talents besides writing fantastic children's stories and one of those was taking photographs, especially of little girls. One of the little girls in the photographs included in this book happens to be Alice Liddell, the actual Alice from "Alice In Wonderland" that Lewis wrote the story for. That's her picture on the cover.

Some of the pictures of little girls he took were nudes and his interest in taking them as well as his friendships with little girls in general raises some questions, but the photography in itself was quite beautiful.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations of Carroll's photographs however too pricey.

[James Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book goes into how Dodgson got interested in photography, got the equipment he needed and began taking photos. He took photos of adults, children (clothed and nude) and nature. It goes into how he basically failed as an artist and this might have helped lead him into photography.

The photography he undertook was complex, involving the use of very portable equtpment including various chemicals and someplace that could serve as a 'black box' where he could develop the photos. He later gave up photography, possibly because a new process was being used that he didn't want to learn.

As far as his photos of children, especially the nude ones, the book notes that the parents gave permission and the mother would come with her daughter and stay there through the whole clothing or unclothing process.T he book contains the nude photos that survived as he destroyed all the others. There was some difficulty with one mother who didn't agree to have her child photographed.

The book also includes info on the Hiawatha Photography poem, the Hatch sisters, his child friends, notes, a bibliography and lots and lots of other information.

There is no doubt that he was one of the best photographers in the early days with some of his photos even part of exhibitions. The book has many of his photos in it with explanations of who or what was being photographed. The book is a very good examination of what he did in photography.

[Ellison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writer of 'Alice in wonderland' was also a photographer, and enjoyed photographing...children.