Lady Elizabeth Eastlake
Not on view
In her 1857 essay "Photography," Lady Elizabeth Eastlake credits the sun, and by implication light itself, as the author of photographs, and distinguishes picture making as an art form from "merely mechanical" copying. Often criticized today for its gendered language—the essay refers to sensitized paper as passive and feminine, and to light as the masculine agent that "etches" images instantaneously—Eastlake’s "Photography" remains significant for its positioning of the new medium among the fine arts. In this portrait, the author’s pose echoes her gendered assessment of photography, as she receives rather than confronts the camera’s gaze.
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