John Jabez Edwin Mayall - High Art Photography

High Art Photography

Mayall considered himself to be an "artist" rather than a photographer. In the late 1840s, Mayall stressed the artistic qualities of his daguerreotypes. He considered himself an artist rather than a straightforward commercial portrait photographer. Looking back to the year 1847, Mayall recalled that at this point of his career "I was a struggling artist, much devoted to improving my art." (NOTE ; In census returns, John J.E.Mayall always gives his profession as "Artist.")

At the beginning of his photographic career in 1843, while studying under Professor Boye in Philadelphia, Mayall had planned a series of ten daguerreotypes, which would illustrate the Lord's Prayer.

In 1845, before his return to England, Mayall was regarded as a pioneer in the production of allegorical photographs. Two years later in his studio on the Strand in London, Mayall was producing artistic daguerreotypes with titles such as "This Mortal must put on Immortality." In April 1847, Maylal wrote two articles in the 'Athenaeum' journal in which he outlined his ideas on the use of colouring and 'chiaroscuro' (light and shade) in daguerreotype pictures.

From 1847 Mayall concentrated on producing "daguerreotype pictures to illustrate poetry and sentiment", which he was later to show at the Great Exhibition of 1851. In 1848, Mayall made six daguerreotype plates which depicted Thomas Campbell's poem "The Soldier's Dream".