



Photographer Peter Henry Emerson captured distinctly “natural” photos of the Norfolk broads, a flat region of interconnected shallow rivers, marshes and fens in eastern England. The photos' soft tones, peaceful, agrarian scenes and absence of modern symbols would go on to inspire the Pictorialism movement, which rejected the cold scientific realism and posited photography as a way to express emotional intent.

At first a wealthy and highly educated British surgeon, Emerson bought his first camera in the early 1880s to use on bird-watching expeditions. He later became a prominent figure in the photography world, as well as a controversial one. He insisted that art and photography should be based in science, and that naturalistic photos should replicate the selective focus of the human eye. He dismissed many contemporary artistic photographers as pretentious.

Ultimately he abandoned medicine and spent several years photographing the traditional occupations of rural farmers and fishers on the Norfolk Broads. He published his idyllic photos in several books, including Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads and Pictures of East Anglian Life.



