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

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

Book Description

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Published to accompany a traveling exhibition on the centenary of Lewis Carroll's death, this book is the most comprehensive ever produced on this subject, going far beyond Helmut Gernsheim's early work, Lewis Carrol, Photographer (1949), and several other books. Though Carroll was an amateur, he is widely considered the preeminent 19th-century photographer of children and would be considered so if he had not written a single children's book. This study documents his child-tableaux and also includes many portraits of the parents and other adults in his social circle. Alice Liddell and many other children of his colleagues and friends are represented here in exquisite reproductions that leave no question about Carroll's photographic talents. Several portraits were elaborately hand-colored or set into painted backgrounds by artists at Carroll's request. Highly recommended for history of photography, humanities, 19th-century concentrations, and children's literature collections.?Kathleen Collins, Bank of America Archives, San Francisco
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

[Cohen] wrote the splendid Lewis Carroll: A Biography and edited a two-volume collection of Carroll's letters. Now he has given us a strikingly beautiful volume about Carroll as a skilled photographer. -- The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, Martin Gardner

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Aperture; 1st edition (December 30, 1899)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0893817961
• ISBN-13: 978-0893817961
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 10 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,110,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of the Carroll Photography Books, June 13, 2011

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David Holubetz (Telluride, Colorado) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Reflections in a Looking Glass: A Centennial Celebration of Lewis Carroll, Photographer (Hardcover)

A study of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson's photography. Typical high quality publication from Aperture. They really set the standard for photo books. This was done for the centennial of Lewis Carroll's death, and was meant to accompany a museum exhibit of the same works.

Overshadowed by his incredibly popular stories of Alice in Wonderland, Mr. Dodson aka Lewis Carroll was primarily a mathematics lecturer and photographer at Oxford. This was in the mid to late 1800's, a time when photography was still a new science, and hardly considered art. Dodson was a bold experimenter and consummate professional at this, his real passion. There is a well-written introduction which explains how he went about his task, and broadens the understanding of his body of work. The photos are mostly of friends and family, and of course many are of young girls.

The photos themselves are interesting. Some are better than others. A few are really captivating. They must be viewed with the understanding that many of these people had never had a photo made of them before Carroll, and most certainly they had not been asked to sit perfectly still for 45 seconds while the exposure ran.

There is nothing offensive or lewd about any of the photos, and the book would be appropriate for all to see. Whatever your feelings about Dodgson, this book will probably not change your mind either way. I find it interesting that so many see fit to criticize him and focus on aspects of his personality that really have nothing to do with his merits as a writer or photographer. Get a life people.

Highly recommended for Carroll fans and students of Victorian photography.