Peter Henry Emerson (May 1856 – 12 May 1936) was a
British writer and
photographer. His photographs are early examples of promoting photography as an art form. He is known for taking photographs that displayed
natural settings and for his disputes with the photographic establishment about the purpose and meaning of photography.
Biography
Early life
Emerson was born on La Palma Estate, a sugar plantation near
Encrucijada, Cuba belonging to his American father, Henry Ezekiel Emerson and British mother, Jane, née Harris Billing. He was a distant relative of
Samuel Morse and
Ralph Waldo Emerson. He spent his early years in Cuba on his father's estate. During the American Civil War he spent some time at
Wilmington, Delaware, but moved to England in 1869, after the death of his father. He was schooled at
Cranleigh School where he was a noted scholar and athlete. He subsequently attended
King's College London, before switching to
Clare College, Cambridge in 1879 where he earned his
medical degree in 1885.
Emerson was intelligent, well-educated and wealthy with a facility for clearly articulating his many...
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