Sun Artists: A Serial of Artistic Photography

Sun Artists (1889–91) was an innovative but short-lived publication that promoted photography as an art form.

Each issue focused on one British photographer and presented four of their best works as finely crafted photogravure prints. An accompanying essay helped further the artistic claims for the medium.  The high-quality printing and design also served to elevate the photographs. Subscribers could enjoy the reproductions as standalone prints or bind them together for their libraries.

Sun Artists ceased publication after just eight issues, perhaps due to the high cost of producing such a deluxe periodical. Yet it set a precedent for later publications, such as Alfred Stieglitz's Camera Work< (1903–17). This display includes all eight featured photographers, including Julia Margaret Cameron, a pioneer of artistic photography, and Eveleen Myers, who had been taking photographs for just three years at the time of publication.

You'll find this display in Room 98 of the Photography Centre, in the Kusuma Gallery. This gallery is dedicated to theme of Photography and the Book and explores how books have been fundamental to photography since the 1840s. Surrounding the display you'll find the library of the Royal Photographic Society collection alongside the current browsing library display.

Photographers include: Julia Margaret Cameron, Joseph Gale, Eveleen Myers, Henry Peach Robinson, Lyddell Sawyer, Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, J. B. B. Wellington and Benjamin Gay Wilkinson.

Supported by The Bern Schwartz Family Foundation