Henry Peach Robinson's A Merry Tale (1882)_Emily Song

While having much interest in Henry Peach Robinson’s staged photography, I though “A merry Tale” (1882) is a good example to show his process in making photographs. As a well-known pictorialist photographer, Henry Peach Robinson always encouraged photographers to learn and show artistic thoughts in their work. Interestingly, Robinson used his sketch to carefully arrange details for the upcoming shoots. He would select the theme or the scene in his mind and draw the figures in details with different prompts and settings. I was surprised how meticulous he was in arranging each figure in the scene.

When looking at the sketch, it is clear that Robinson had considered costumes, the light and shade of the figures, and also different accessories that would enhance the mood of the scene. Although his sketch and the photograph are somewhat different in terms of location, each model’s gestures and their positions in the scene are very similar in comparison, except the figure on the second left. As Robinson always thought carefully about arranging his figures and gestures in landscape, this is well shown in his Merry Tale. When looking at each figure, women models all seem to be listening to the woman on the very right. However, the gestures and feelings expressed by each model are different. Interestingly, although the photograph is to some extent, an artificial scene, each model seems to be very real in terms of their gestures and looks. Robinson’s rule in dresses was that clothes worn by models should not be new, clean clothes because he stressed the importance of capturing the characteristics of the country. In this way, his work shows how Robinson highlighted the importance of relating country activities and harmonies.