Benjamin Brecknell Turner, contents page from album 'Photographic Views from Nature'

Benjamin Brecknell Turner, contents page from album 'Photographic Views from Nature', 1854

Benjamin Brecknell Turner
Contents page from album 'Photographic Views from Nature'
England
1854

Benjamin Brecknell Turner, album Cover 'Photographic Views From Nature'

Benjamin Brecknell Turner, album Cover 'Photographic Views From Nature', 1854, anonymous loan

Benjamin Brecknell Turner
Album Cover 'Photographic Views From Nature'
England
1854
Anonymous loan

Benjamin Brecknell Turner, 'Lynmouth

Benjamin Brecknell Turner, 'Lynmouth, North Devon', 1852-1854. Museum no. PH.3-1982

Benjamin Brecknell Turner (1815-1894)
'Lynmouth, North Devon'
England
1852-1854
Albumen Print from paper negative
Museum no. PH.3-1982

Romantic poets were to a large extent responsible for the increasing popularity of visiting locations in England for sensory inspiration and spiritual enlightenment. Lynmouth, a village on the Devon coast, was one such magnetic location. Shelley, Wordsworth and Coleridge all visited. Although popular the village was difficult to reach. The railway did not arrive until 1898. In the 1850s this was a select place for discriminating visitors who arrived by coach or steamer from Bristol. Turner photographed the Italianate holiday villas with their balconies overlooking the river Lyn that flows through the village.

Benjamin Brecknell Turner, Crystal Palace Transept

Benjamin Brecknell Turner, Crystal Palace Transept, Hyde Park, about 1852. Museum no. PH.1-1982

Benjamin Brecknell Turner (1815 - 94)
Crystal Palace Transept, Hyde Park
England
About 1852
Albumen print from paper negative
Museum no. PH.1-1982

Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace housed the Great Exhibition of 1851. Here, for the first time anywhere in the world, a significant number of fine photographs were displayed. Over 700 photographs, from six countries, were shown. The exhibition probably influenced Turner to acquire a new, large camera that year. In March 1852, when the six million visitors had departed and nearly all of the thousands of exhibits had been removed - but before the building had been dismantled (to be rebuilt in Sydenham in south London) - Turner photographed the interior. His view of the elm tree enclosed in the iron and glass structure can be read as a comparative study on the work of nature and the engineering of man.

Benjamin Brecknell Turner, 'Crystal Palace

Benjamin Brecknell Turner, 'Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, 1852, Nave', 1852-1854. Museum no. PH.2-1982

Benjamin Brecknell Turner (1815-1894) 
'Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, 1852, Nave'
England
1852-1854
Albumen Print from paper negative
Museum no. PH.2-1982

This is a view of the 1, 848 feet long transept of the Crystal Palace showing the swooping lines of the roof trusses. No doubt Turner was struck by the purity of its form after all of the complex decoration of the exhibition courts and the exhibits had gone. Other photographers worked in the Crystal Palace: none matched this image of the brilliant tensile geometry of its structure.

Benjamin Brecknell Turner, 'Lyndale

Benjamin Brecknell Turner, 'Lyndale, North Devon', 1852-1854. Museum no. PH.4-1982

Benjamin Brecknell Turner (1815-1894)
'Lyndale, North Devon'
England
Albumen Print from paper negative
1852-1854
Museum no. PH.4-1982

One of the most illusive features of nature for photographers was water. As in many photographs of the time, due to the long exposure, the water in this image has turned into a veil wrapped around the forms of the rocks. In 1857 one critic noted: 'Water our art altogether misses, turning it either into congealed mud or to mere chaos or nonentity'. Turner's river image is a good instance of purely photographic effect here used to good aesthetic effect. Perhaps he acknowledged and enjoyed this peculiar photographic phenomenon for its own qualities.

Benjamin Brecknell Turner, 'Cathedral Yard

Benjamin Brecknell Turner, 'Cathedral Yard, Peterborough', 1852-1854. Museum no. PH.5-1982

Benjamin Brecknell Turner (1815-1894)
'Cathedral Yard, Peterborough'
Albumen Print from paper negative
England
1852-1854
Museum no. PH.5-1982

The motif of the forbidding or enticing entrance or gateway, as in this image, recurs throughout Photographic Views from Nature as if to punctuate the visual journey with points of entry and departure.