Another Riddle and a Connection Between Photography and Poetry

<p>I wanted to take a break from reading about photography so I got a book from a libaray that I thought would be a nice diversion. No such luck. The first chapter talked about a photograph from the mid 1800's that is hidden away in a Victorian library at Princeton. <br /><br />The photo is of a young girl named Alice, who was the daughter of the dean at Oxford. The photographer (born in Cheshire England) was a math professor at Oxford who had just gotten his first camera. The did a photographic interpretation of the poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson by having the model dress in peasant's clothes and posed her to make her look like a beggar. </p>

<p>The math professor also wrote several poems about his camera, and even the film development process! He also liked the surreal nature of the camera, new concepts such as in focus and out of focus, having to view inverted images, where left is right and right was left. Then he had to disappear into the back hole of a tent to develop the film on site, where the mystical black art of chemistry was used to bring the image to life.<br>

<br />Both the math professor and his uncle were photo enthusiast and would get together on the weekend to do photoshoots. His uncle was the "Director of Lunacy" at a local hospital. He was responsible for determining if I mentally ill patents should be committed to a hospital. The two of them undoubtedly had disucssions about the patients, which influenced the math professors art. Most likley if the camera wasn't invented this famous work of art (not a photograph) would never have been created.</p>

<p>Can you anyone guess who the math professor/photographer was and who the girl in the photogaph was? Looking at the photograph will not help.</p>

<p>Lewis Carroll.</p>

<p>This one is way too easy. Besides, as many englishmen can attest, Oxford professors has been no strangers to all kinds of lunacy, so .. next patient, please.</p>

<p>The challenge question is what/who is the title/author of the book I am reading.</p>

<p>Don, this might be better in the casual conversations forum, unless there's a philosophical issue you want to discuss, in which case now might be a good time to articulate it . . . or at least supply us with 10-12 inches of quoted material to show you're serious. ;-)</p>

<p>Fred<br>

It made much more sense to post it here. Since it was connected to the earlier discussion of poetry and photography, any many of your positive comments on the issue.</p>

<p>The Reverend Charles Luttwig Dodgson. The girl is Alice Liddell or his other favorite model, Alexandra "Xie" Rhoda Kitchin.</p>

<p>There are some interesting parallels to be drawn between poetry and visual art, and short-form poetry and photography. Poems short enough to be simply re-written (i.e. "re-shot") rather than edited piecemeal are quite a bit like photographs both in the creative act, and how the audience reacts to them.</p>

 

<p><em>Andrew,</em><br>

Funny you should mention that. <a href="http://www.panoramacamera.us/SKETCHBOOKFOUR.html">LINK</a></p>

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