Thursday 11 March 2010

Francis Meadow (Frank) Sutcliffe

Francis Meadow (Frank) Sutcliffe (6 October 1853 – 31 May 1941) was an English photographic artist.

He was born in Headingley, Leeds, to the painter Thomas Sutcliffe and Sarah Lorentia Button. He had an elementary education at a dame school before moving into the new technology of photography.

He made a living as a portrait photographer, working first in Tunbridge Wells, Kent then for the rest of his life in Sleights, Yorkshire. His father had brought him into contact with prominent figures in the world of art such as John Ruskin, and he resented having to prostitute his art taking photographs of holiday-makers. His business in Skinner Street rooted him to Whitby and the Eskdale valley but, by photographing the ordinary people that he knew well, he built up a most complete and revealing picture of a late Victorian town, and the people who lived and worked there.
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