eishiya reviewed Benjamin Brecknell Turner by Martin Barnes
Victorian nostalgia, photographed
3 stars
Pairing two essays - one a biography of Benjamin Brecknell Turner, the other a discussion of the recurring themes and subjects in his work - with a selection of his work printed in high quality, "Benjamin Brecknell Turner: Rural England Through a Victorian Lens" is a lovely look at one amateur photographer's work and its context - encroaching industrialisation, other early photographers, and the established conventions in landscape art.
Turner's images exude the Victorian nostalgia for the fictive pre-industrial Merry England, both by shunning modern elements and by occasionally juxtaposing them against ruined Medieval churches and otherwise timeless rural scenes. That much is clear from the images themselves, but the essays compare his art to that of other artists of the period, English and continental, to highlight the elements of "Englishness" in Turner's work.
The essays provide a lot of interesting context, and looking at the images as the essays …
Pairing two essays - one a biography of Benjamin Brecknell Turner, the other a discussion of the recurring themes and subjects in his work - with a selection of his work printed in high quality, "Benjamin Brecknell Turner: Rural England Through a Victorian Lens" is a lovely look at one amateur photographer's work and its context - encroaching industrialisation, other early photographers, and the established conventions in landscape art.
Turner's images exude the Victorian nostalgia for the fictive pre-industrial Merry England, both by shunning modern elements and by occasionally juxtaposing them against ruined Medieval churches and otherwise timeless rural scenes. That much is clear from the images themselves, but the essays compare his art to that of other artists of the period, English and continental, to highlight the elements of "Englishness" in Turner's work.
The essays provide a lot of interesting context, and looking at the images as the essays refer to them is probably the best way to enjoy this book. Unfortunately, the captions for the plates provide only the photographs' titles, so re-reading/skimming the essays is necessary if you need the context again. More information in the captions would've been nice, even if it's redundant with the essays.
I enjoyed learning about BB Turner, even though I'd not heard of him before I came across this book. If, however, you're drawn in only by the book's subtitle and its promise of images of rural England, and have no interest in Victorian photography as a nascent art form, you may find yourself disappointed. Turner was not a photojournalist or surveyor, and he was not out to thoroughly document the places he photographed. His works are artistic impressions, as curated and staged as paintings; they focus on the ideal rather than the real. If you're not sure whether Benjamin Brecknell Turner's work will be of interest to you, look him up in the V&A's online collection, as most of the images can be found there.