Dr. Hugh Welch Diamond is a well known photography for his remarkable collection of portraits. He first started photography about three months after William Henry Fox Talbot introduced photography. Diamond believed that when studying facial structures he would be able to identify and diagnose people with mental illnesses, he felt that photographing them would help to identify illnesses easier with future patients. With his collection of portraits he used simple poses on a black or grey background, Diamond wrote a paper on ‘On the Application of Photography to the Physiognomic and Mental Phenomena of Insanity’ and sent it to the Royal Society of Medicine to be published. His photography were reproduced in medical journals and also exhibitions, with this portraits he wanted to show a connection between the patients disturbed minds and their appearance, but people had mixed reviews on how to respond to his work as they felt that is was neither science or photography.
Portrait of a patient, Surrey County Asylum, c. 1855
http://nationalmediamuseumblog.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/a-z-photography-collection-hugh-welch-diamond/
Portrait of a patient, Surrey County Asylum, c. 1855
http://nationalmediamuseumblog.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/a-z-photography-collection-hugh-welch-diamond/
These photos are standard portraits but the subject was to capture the patients facial structures with disorders. While studying these images i was drawn to their faces and how disturbing they are, as i feel when looking at these portraits i am looking in to their soul with their unnatural way in the photograph, as Diamond haven’t tried to cover up their insanity showing who they really are. i feel that photographing the patients as who they are has made me more interested in the portraits, as they are not standard portraiture poses would normally hide away the models personality, these portraits reveal their inner self from the patients.With Diamonds portraits they display a personal insight to the people life who are photographed showing their imperfections, creating a connection with the viewer and the photograph.
Lauren Block 