Charles Frederick Inston (1855–1917) was a British

pictorialist Pictorialism is an international style and aesthetic movement that dominated photography during the later 19th and early 20th centuries. There is no standard definition of the term, but in general it refers to a style in which the photographer ha ...

photographer. He was elected a member of the

Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is the world's oldest photographic society having been in continuous existence since 1853. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as th ...

in 1896 and Fellow in 1901 and was organiser of the Northern Photographic Exhibition from 1904. He became Secretary then President of the Liverpool Amateur Photographic Society.

Personal life

Inston was born in Birmingham in October 1855. His parents were Joseph and Jane (née Barnes) Instone. He had a general and lithographic printing business in central

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

from at least 1879. He was a

freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

with membership of the Kirkdale Lodge. In 1881 he married. He experienced ill health for several years in later life and died on 4 May 1917.

Career as a photographer

Inston photographed nature, especially landscapes and seascapes as well as genre pictures in towns, particularly Liverpool. He used a hand-held camera and sometimes asked people to pose in his photographs. He was awarded a bronze medal for his photograph ''The Lowest Ebb'' in 1897. His photograph ''Storm Breaking'' in the 1898 Royal Photographic Society exhibition made an impact on his contemporaries. His photograph ''Whence and Whither?'' of a sea wave was included in a compilation of the photograms of the year in 1900. In 1902 one of his photographs was published in the American magazine ''

Camera Notes ''Camera Notes'' was a photographic journal published by the Camera Club of New York from 1897 to 1903. It was edited for most of that time by photographer Alfred Stieglitz and was considered the most significant American photography journal of ...

'' edited by

Alfred Stieglitz Alfred Stieglitz (; January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz was k ...

. He exhibited at the Royal Photographic Society in 1896, 1900, 1902 and 1906, and was elected as a member in 1896 and fellow in 1901. He was a member of the committee for selecting works for the society's exhibitions 1908 - 1912 and council 1912 - 1917. He instigate the society's Northern Photographic Exhibition in 1904, first held in the

Walker Art Gallery The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History The Walker Art Gallery's collection dates from 1819 ...

in Liverpool and then in Manchester and Leeds, inviting fellow council member

Frank Sutcliffe Francis Meadow (Frank) Sutcliffe (6 October 1853 – 31 May 1941) was an English pioneering photographic artist whose work presented an enduring record of life in the seaside town of Whitby, England, and surrounding areas, in the late Victoria ...

as a judge for the 1906 Northern Exhibition in Manchester. The exhibition catalogues for 1904, 1907 and 1911 were printed by Inston's company. He became involved in the organisation of several photographic societies and his exhibition of photographs decreased. In 1911 he was president of the Lancashire and Cheshire Photographic Union. He became secretary of the Liverpool Amateur Photographic Association in 1909 and was president in 1912 - 1913. When the Liverpool Amateur Photographic Association held an exhibition of the work of

Alvin Langdon Coburn Alvin Langdon Coburn (June 11, 1882 – November 23, 1966) was an American photographer who became a key figure in the development of pictorialism. He became the first major photographer to emphasize the visual potential of elevated viewpoints an ...

in 1906, Inston was part of the group of Liverpool photographers that accompanied Coburn on a visit to Birmingham.

Legacy

Although prints of some of his photographs remain, the majority of his photographs no longer exist. Some of his photographs are included in museum and art collections such as the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Musée Nicéphore-Niépce museum of photography, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Royal Photographic Society Collection. There is an album of contact prints from his lantern slides of Liverpool characters and streets from around 1890 in the Liverpool Records Office and some lantern slides held by the Liverpool Amateur Photographic Association. One of Inston's photographs showing a black street trader in Liverpool in 1895 was exhibited in

Merseyside Maritime Museum The Merseyside Maritime Museum is a museum based in the city of Liverpool, Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater M ...

. There was a retrospective exhibition of some of his surviving work at the Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool in 1979.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Inston, Charles F 1855 births 1917 deaths British photographers Photographers from Liverpool Royal Photographic Society members