Among his best known works is his R.P.S. medal picture, Wirksworth Church, with its shaft of light falling through the high window across the picture.

— obituary: William R. Bland, F.R.P.S., 1929

This photograph by the artist shows the North Choir Aisle at left and Chancel on right. The tomb of Anthony Gell, (ca. 1522-1583) a law reporter active in the reigns of Edward VI to Elizabeth I, is on left.

St Mary the Virgin is a parish church in the Church of England in Wirksworth, Derbyshire. It is a Grade I listed building. The existing building dates mostly from the 13th–15th centuries, but notable survivals from the Anglo-Saxon period indicate a church has stood on this site since at least the 8th century AD. It was restored in 1820, then in 1870 by Sir Gilbert Scott. -Wikipedia (2025) continues…

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William R. Bland: 1851-1929

A synopsis of British amateur photographer W.R. Bland’s work courtesy the Art Gallery of New South Wales Photography Collection Handbook, 2007:

Working as a banker from the age of 16 to the age of 60, William R Bland is indicative of the number of serious amateurs who, through membership of local photographic societies, became a significant part of a wider community of pictorial photographers. Bland took up photography at the age of 40, initially in order to instruct his son on the use of a camera, and subsequently joined and exhibited his work in local photography clubs. Through the influence of fellow photographer J Page Croft, Bland became increasingly concerned with photography’s potential for artistic expression and with evoking the mood of his subjects, particularly in the atmospheric impressions of landscape. To achieve this vision, Bland’s developing process was slow and deliberate; he preferred to work on a few prints each year to perfection, rather than create a prolific output. As well as exhibiting his work, Bland was also known as a photography critic and competition judge, particularly through his work in each of these guises with the Royal Photographic Society in London of which he was made a fellow.

The following obituary appeared in the Photographic Journal of The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain after Bland’s death in 1929:

W. R. BLAND, F.R.P.S.

An Appreciation by J. C. Warburg, F.R.P.S.

THE death of William R. Bland, on Saturday, February 16th, 1929, in his 78th year, removes one, who as guide, philosopher and friend, has marched for some thirty years among the leaders of pictorial photography, and whose technical ability, artistic judgment, and sound critical acumen has helped to place it in the position it now occupies.

Bland was a man of great versatility and of very varied attainments. Professionally he was occupied in Smith’s Bank at Derby, which he entered in his sixteenth year and left in his sixtieth. At the time of his marriage, when 24, he was one of the early Derby Volunteers. He practised shooting during his ” dinner hour,” ten minutes to the range, ten back, thirty-five minutes shooting and the rest eating. He won three county badges and shot his way into the ” Queen’s Sixty” at Wimbledon in 1874. He was one of Derbyshire’s representatives in chess; originated and published the first two issues of “The Chess Players’ Annual and Club Directory,” and for five years edited a weekly chess page in one of the London papers. Later he turned his attention to rose-growing for exhibition, and was successful at the National and other shows. He also studied astronomy, building his own observatory. He kept up his health by walking (running down hill) 41⁄2 miles to the bank each morning-there was no train service. His time was 60 minutes.

Lord Salisbury, so Bland said, was responsible for his taking up photography. He created County Councils, and the Derbyshire County Council took Bland’s garden for an experimental plot. At this juncture, at this parting of the ways, his son bought a shilling camera at a Christmas bazaar in 1890. Bland was called in to help. In order to impart instruction to his son, he in turn, was carefully instructed by Keene, of Derby. Later he joined a postal club, to which, in his own words, he “regularly contributed the usual thing,” until, falling under the influence of J. Page Croft, he discovered that the camera was less important than the man. His first guinea Lancaster quarter-plate camera gave place later to a 12+10 with three lenses. Among his best known works is his R.P.S. medal picture, Wirksworth Church,” with its shaft of light falling through the high window across the picture. Owing to technical difficulties it required a whole day and frequent attention to obtain a print, and the only available day was Sunday. On twenty-nine successive Sundays the day’s work was developed-hot bath platinotype was the only process used found wanting, and destroyed! The thirtieth print was a success. Another well-known work was “The Bridge at Haworth,” one of a series done, circa 1900, for Messrs. Smith Elder and Company’s new Bronté edition. Probably the works with the most artistic content, with the most impression of the mood and spirit of the subject, are those of the mountains and valleys of the Peak district. “The Downfall ” is one; but most individual and most poetically satisfying of all, and Bland’s own favourite, I believe, is the picture of two mountain streams in a Peak Valley, which a friend dubbed irreverently at the time, “The Worm Race.”

Technically, Bland was wedded to Wratten and Wainwright plates, and slow tentative development with pyro ammonia. The dilute ammonia was added a drop at a time, and allowed to work till development ceased before another drop was added. This method would, presumably, prevent the lights over-developing, while giving the fullest modelling to the shadows which the exposure would produce; especially as Bland reckoned out his exposure carefully by table or meter, and then gave, perhaps, ten times the indicated time.

The result was certainly to obtain negatives from which platinum prints of great richness with transparent deep shadows were obtained.

Bland was never a prolific worker-one or two first-class prints a year was enough. He was as well known as a critic, an authority, and a judge at photographic exhibitions (he functioned many times at the R.P.S. exhibition, and was at one time on the Council) as for his photographs.

In 1895 Bland took over the secretaryship of the POSTAL CAMERA CLUB, founded the year before by Rev. F. C. W. Griffith, of Clare, which he had joined during the first few months of its existence. He fostered it up from a very small affair to the best known photographic portfolio club in existence. His judgment and tactfulness, his clever choice of members, his ruling-the iron hand in the velvet glove-the affection and respect which he won from all the members, had an influence far beyond the membership of the club itself. Many of the best known English pictorial photographers graduated in its ranks, and a careful census of the English pictorial work at either of the London exhibitions will often show that a very large fraction-perhaps a third or a fifth-is the work of past and present members of the P.C.C.

As a critic he was without superior. His keen critical faculty and balanced judgment, uncoloured by personal bias, made him as impartial a judge of one school of work as of another. It would be difficult to say whether naturalistic, realistic, or impressionist work appealed most to him. Each was treated and judged on its merits. Bland was a man of heart as well as of judgment. A true friend, a welcome guest, a willing helper to tyro or expert, a trenchant writer, his never failing humour and engaging personality endeared him to all who knew him.  (1.)

1. Obituary: W.R. BLAND F.R.P.S.  An Appreciation by J.C. Warburg, F.R.P.S.: The Photographic Journal:Publication of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain and the Photographic Alliance, Volume 69, May, 1929, pp. 255-56.