Frederick Hollyer
“At an early age Frederick Hollyer became immersed in the art world and c.1860 was attracted to photography…As a relaxation Hollyer enjoyed photographing people and for some thirty years his studio was reserved mondays for this purpose only. His close association with leading artists through his main photographic practice led to his taking their portraits. Amonst those he photographed were D.G. Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, G.F. Watts, Frederick Leighton, William Morris, Walter Crane, Byam Shaw and John Ruskin. His portraits have rare and unusual qualities. He did not have to conform to the conventionalities of commercial studio portraiture so that most of his sitters were casually and naturally posed, unobtrusively lit, revealing in respect of character and characteristics, and refreshingly unretouched….Contemporary critics put Hollyer into the forefront of creative photographers: “From a fine Hollyer portrait you study the man as he is…these finely modelled heads, set so well in place as regards the decoration of a panel, are also transcripts of personalities-human documents of singular verity that should be amongst the prized treasures of future historians. It is quite possible that many a minor poet or secondary painter may attract the attention of the next century, merely because Mr. Hollyer photographed him.” 1.
His own words go further to illuminate his work:
“The one thing needful for photographers, if they are ever to take a position as artists, is general culture, which includes the study of the work of artists of all other classes. If every photographer would make a real study, for two or three years, of the hands of his sitters, portraiture would take an immense step forward. But the photographer must cease attempting to pose hands and make them pose themselves by giving them some congenial occupation…The photographer who has met a man half a dozen times should know with absolute certainty what is the most characteristic pose and lighting for his face…I think it would be a most useful thing, even from the business point of view, if every photographer would resolve that for every negative made for profit there should be another made for love. The greatest good of the Photographic Salon has been in showing that the best professional photographers could do some of the finest amateur work.” 2.
Notes:
1. Photograms of 1895
2. The Photogram, 1899: “The Value of Studies. A few words with Frederick Hollyer” : pp. 65-9
Both citations extracted from a short biography of Hollyer from : The Linked Ring: The Secession in Photography: 1892-1910 : Margaret F. Harker: 1979: A Royal Photographic Society Publication: pp. 153-4