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Ely Cathedral
On View
Not on view
Object number1995/6.23

Ely Cathedral

Maker (British, 1853-1943)
Dateca. 1900
Mediumplatinum print
Dimensionsimage (flush): 10 1/8 × 7 1/4 in. (25.7 × 18.4 cm)
mount: 13 1/4 × 10 1/4 in. (33.7 × 26 cm)
mount: 19 5/8 × 12 3/4 in. (49.8 × 32.4 cm)
mat: 24 × 18 in. (61 × 45.7 cm)
Credit LineGift of Wm. John Upjohn
Exhibition History"Kalamazoo Collects Photography," KIA (Mar. 1980). "70 Years, 70 Works from the KIA Permanent Collection," KIA (Nov.19, 1994 - Feb.10, 1995). "Masterworks on Paper," KIA Long Gallery (Sept. 2005 - Jan. 2006). Label TextEnglish photographer Frederick Henry Evans (1853-1943) is best known for his fastidious representations of English and French cathedrals. He took up photography in middle age after retiring as a bookseller and soon, influenced by the patience and carefulness of medieval ecclesiastical builders, became known for his painstaking methods, as he often studied his architectural subjects for weeks to evaluate various light conditions and establish the optimal moment at which to capture his image. Inspired by both religiosity and a devotion to perfectionism, the order and detail of his photographs recall the careful and skillful works of other late-19th- and early-20th-century British photographers, etchers, and writers who were similarly inspired to document and celebrate medieval cathedrals. Like Evans, many of these men were inspired by a sense of alarm about the growing modernity and impiety of the society that they perceived around them and admiration for the patience, devotion, ingenuity, and craftsmanship of the men who had erected these grand structures centuries before. At a time when the quick-and-dirty “snapshot” was growing in popularity and many Pictorialist photographers sought to advocate for their medium’s status as art by altering their images to more closely resemble paintings, Evans became known as a passionate advocate for carefully composed, unaltered photographs. Though celebrated for the skill and detail of his work both in the first few decades of the twentieth century and today, the unpopularity of his anti-Pictorialist stance resulted in obscurity during his later years. Ely Cathedral, in Cambridgeshire, is one of the grandest medieval cathedrals in England. Erected on the site of a 7th-century Anglo-Saxon abbey, the Romanesque structure was built over the course of nearly three centuries beginning in 1083. On an architectural level, it is renowned both for its grand spaces, refined details, and unusual 14th-century octagonal tower. Evans’ photograph, captured from the perfect angle to allow the nave and aisle’s arches to echo satisfyingly as they recede into space, shows the cathedral as a model of neatness and order - a tribute, seemingly, to its careful design and construction.