Charles Latham (photographer)

Charles Latham was born on 15 May 1847 in Manchester, the son of an engraver.{{cite journal |last1=Taylor |first1=Kristina |title=An Eye for a View |journal=Country Life |date=24 August 2006 |pages=60–64}} Nothing is known about his early life, how he learnt his craft as a photographer, or the start of his career. By 1874 he was based in London. The earliest known photograph by Latham was of the Three Nuns Inn on Aldgate High Street, taken for the antiquarian Philip Norman. Norman was documenting London buildings that were about to be demolished, using both his own drawings and paintings, and photographs.{{cite web |last1=Latham |first1=Charles |last2=Norman |first2=Philip E |title=Workmen outside the Three Nuns public house on Aldgate High Street, showing the building during demolition prior to its rebuilding |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/AL1944/008/01 |website=Folio of photographs: Old London |publisher=Historic England |access-date=1 May 2020}}

Latham worked for publishers such as Ernst Wasmuth and Batsford, specializing in architecture and outdoor topics. For Wasmuth he provided photographs for an overview of British and Irish architecture published in 1890.{{cite book |editor1-last=Uhde |editor1-first=Constantin |title=Baudenkmäler in Grossbritannien und Irland. (Architectural monuments and buildings of Great Britain and Ireland) |date=1890 |publisher=Ernst Wasmuth Verlag |location=Tübingen}} His first work for Batsford was with the architect John Alfred Gotch on his book Architecture of the Renaissance in England.{{cite book |last1=Gotch |first1=John Alfred |last2=Brown |first2=Walter Talbot |title=Architecture of the Renaissance in England: Illustrated by a Series of Views and Details from Buildings Erected Between the Years 1560-1635, with Historical and Critical Text |date=1891 |publisher=B.T. Batsford |location=London}} Volume 1 available at the [https://archive.org/details/gotch-architecture-of-the-renaissance-vol-1-images Internet Archive] He then worked on George Birch's book on London churches of the 17th and 18th centuries,{{cite book |last1=Birch |first1=George H. |title=London churches of the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries |date=1896 |publisher=E.T. Batsford |location=London|url=https://archive.org/details/gri_33125010245807}} which has been described as "the handsomest piece of preservation propaganda ever printed".{{cite book |last1=Cornforth |first1=John |title=The search for a style : Country life and architecture, 1897-1935 |date=1988 |publisher=Norton |location=New York |isbn=978-0393027037|page=20}} It contains 64 of Latham's photographs. He provided the photographs for two other Batsford books: Belcher and Macartney's two volume set of Renaissance English architecture{{cite book |last1=Belcher |first1=John |last2=Macartney |first2=Mervyn E. | author-link1=John Belcher (architect)| author-link2=Mervyn Macartney|title=Later Renaissance architecture in England : a series of examples of the domestic buildings erected subsequent to the Elizabethan period |date=1901 |publisher=B.T. Batsford |location=London}}[https://archive.org/details/gri_33125012763930/page/n5/mode/2up Volume 1]; [https://archive.org/details/gri_33125016354975/page/n6/mode/2up Volume 2] and H. Inigo Triggs's book on formal gardens in England and Scotland.{{cite book |last1=Triggs |first1=H.Inigo |title=Formal gardens in England and Scotland, their planning and arrangement, architectural and ornamental features |date=1902 |publisher=B.T. Batsford |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/gri_33125015157460}}

Latham became staff photographer of the magazine Country Life shortly after it was founded in 1897 by Edward Hudson. The format of the magazine was made possible by technical advances in printing that allowed high quality photographic images and text to be printed on the same page. The magazine featured golf and racing news, advertisements for country homes, and articles about aspects of country life including houses and gardens. Many of the photographs accompanying these articles were by Latham, and the topics included both old established houses such as Coleshill, in Berkshire (a seventeenth century house, now lost),{{cite journal |title=Coleshill, Berkshire |journal=Country Life |date=7 May 1904 |issue=383 |pages=666–673}} as well as newly built ones, such as Goddards in Surrey, designed by Edwin Lutyens, with gardens by Gertrude Jekyll.{{cite journal |title=Goddards, a home of rest |journal=Country Life |date=30 January 1904 |issue=369 |pages=162–170}} Latham did not only work in Britain. In 1903 he travelled to Italy to photograph gardens there, taking with him a large format camera and many glass-plate negatives. Three books were published by Country Life between 1900 and 1905 featuring his work: Gardens Old and New,{{cite book |last1=Tipping |first1=H.A. |title=Gardens, old and new; the country house & its garden environment |date=1900 |publisher=Country Life |location=London}} [https://archive.org/details/gardensoldnewcou01unse Volume 1]; [https://archive.org/details/gardensoldnewcou02unse Volume 2]; [https://archive.org/details/gardensoldnewcou03unse/page/n9/mode/2up Volume 3]. In English Homes,{{cite book |last1=Latham |first1=Charles |title=In English Homes: The Internal Character, Furniture & Adornments of Some of the Most Notable Houses of England Historically Depicted |date=1904 |publisher=Country Life}} and The Gardens of Italy.{{cite book |last1=Latham |first1=Charles |last2=Phillipps |first2=E. March |title=The Gardens of Italy |date=1905 |publisher=Country Life}} [https://archive.org/details/mobot31753002820071/page/n3/mode/2up Volume 1]; [https://archive.org/details/mobot31753002820089/page/143/mode/2up Volume 2]. A recent publication reproduces many of Latham's Italian images.

Latham's reputation was firmly established by the time he started working for Country Life. Gotch said of him, "The art of fitly illustrating architecture has not been widely acquired and we hold ourselves fortunate in having secured the services of Latham." A review of In English Homes in The New York Times described him as"perhaps the best-known photographic interpreter of English architecture".{{cite news |title=English Homes. Charles Latham's Faithful Pictures of Artistic Interiors |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1904/08/13/archives/english-homes-charles-lathams-faithful-pictures-of-artistic.html |access-date=2 May 2020 |agency=New York Times |date=13 August 1904}} His style was of necessity often formal, as he worked within constraints defined by his authors and publishers. But as Kristina Taylor has noted, he often included people and props into his compositions, particularly in the Country Life work where he had more freedom. For his interiors he often removed much of the furniture and ornaments from a room, ensuring clarity and emphasizing the original architecture.

There are few personal reminiscences of Latham. One is from Harold Batsford, who remembered him as a man with a red beard, a limp, and the complete absence of the letter H. On one occasion, Latham was planning to photograph a house that had been subjected to unfortunate Victorian "improvements". He looked around and then said to the owner "'ateful and 'ideous. I'm glad I kept my cab" and stalked out.{{cite book |last1=Bolitho |first1=Hector |title=A Batsford Century 1843 To 1943 |date=1943 |publisher=B.T. Batsford |location=London |page=30}} He was clearly no gentleman photographer.

Latham was married in 1878 to Elizabeth Price, and they had a daughter Marion. But Elizabeth died of consumption in 1881. Latham Died on 27 October 1912 in a nursing home in Chiswick, having been suffering from colon cancer for five years. A brief obituary notice appeared in Country Life. He left an estate of £12,699, a considerable sum for the time.

{{Gallery

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|File:Birch London Churches All Hallows the Great gri 33125010245807 0189.jpg

|alt1=Birch London Churches All Hallows the Great

|All Hallows the Great. From Birch's London Churches, published 1896.

|File:Birch London Churches St Bride Fleet Street gri 33125010245807 0163.jpg

|alt2=Birch London Churches St Bride Fleet Street

|St Bride Fleet Street. From Birch's London Churches, published 1896.

|File:Gardens Old and New Barrow Court six months of the year 0237.jpg

|alt3=Gardens Old and New Barrow Court six months of the year

|Barrow Court: Six months of the year. From Gardens Old and New, published 1900.

|File:Gardens Old and New Cranborne Manor North Porch 0195.jpg

|alt4=Gardens Old and New Cranborne Manor North Porch

|The North Porch of Cranborne Manor. From Gardens Old and New, published 1900.

|File:Gardens Old and New Eydon by the Sundial 0129.jpg

|alt5=Gardens Old and New Eydon by the Sundial

|New Eydon by the Sundial. From Gardens Old and New, published 1900.

|File:Gardens Old and New Munstead Wood - a vista 0095.jpg

|alt6=Gardens Old and New Munstead Wood - a vista

|Munstead Wood - a vista. From Gardens Old and New, published 1900.

|File:Gardens Old and New Pitchford Kitchen Garden 0146.jpg

|alt7=Gardens Old and New Pitchford Kitchen Garden

|Pitchford Kitchen Garden. From Gardens Old and New, published 1900.

|File:Later Renaissance Temple of Aeolus Kew Gardens Plate 38 0180.jpg

|alt8=Later Renaissance Temple of Aeolus Kew Gardens

|Temple of Aeolus Kew Gardens. From Later Renaissance architecture in England, Published 1901

|File:Later Renaissance Coleshill Berkshire Plate 100 0092.jpg

|alt9=Later Renaissance Coleshill Berkshire

|Coleshill House. From Later Renaissance architecture in England, Published 1901

|File:Later Renaissance Coleshill Berkshire Plate 101 0094.jpg

|alt10=Later Renaissance Coleshill Berkshire

|Coleshill House, Interior of the Saloon. From Later Renaissance architecture in England, Published 1901

|File:Later Renaissance The Lucas Asylum Wokingham Plate 67 0238.jpg

|alt11=Later Renaissance The Lucas Asylum Wokingham

|The Henry Lucas Hospital, Wokingham. From Later Renaissance architecture in England, Published 1901

|File:Gardens of Italy Palazzo Doria Courtyard 0115.jpg

|alt12=Gardens of Italy Palazzo Doria Courtyard

|Courtyard of the Palazzo Doria. From The gardens of Italy, Published 1905.

|File:Gardens of Italy Vatican Gardens West Villino with St Peters 0059.jpg

|alt13=Gardens of Italy Vatican Gardens West Villino with St Peters

|Vatican Gardens: The West Villino with the Dome of St Peters. From The gardens of Italy, Published 1905.

|File:Gardens of Italy Villa Torlonia Frascati cascade and basin 0155.jpg

|alt14=Gardens of Italy Villa Torlonia Frascati cascade and basin

|Villa Torlonia Frascati: The cascade and basin. From The gardens of Italy, Published 1905.

|File:Latham Country Life 1904 Goddards Page 168 The Skittle Alley.jpg

|alt15=Latham Country Life 1904 Goddards

|Goddards: The Skittle Alley. From Country Life 30 January 1904.

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{{reflist}}

{{Commons category|Charles Latham (Photographer)}}

• [https://www.countrylifeimages.co.uk/ Country Life Picture Library], with many of Latham's images

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Category:1847 births

Category:1912 deaths

Category:Photographers from Manchester

Category:British architectural photographers