The Linked Ring was a photographic society created to propose and defend that photography was just as much an art as it was a science, motivated to propelling photography further into the fine art world. Members dedicated to the craft looked for new techniques that would cause less knowledgeable to steer away, persuading photographers and enthusiasts to experiment with chemical process es, printing techniques and new styles.

Motivation to create the Linked Ring

Photography was interpreted in two ways; art photography and science photography. The sci ence of photography requires practice that determines the outcome of the image, whereas the art aspect of photography concerns itself with the aesthetic experience and success of the photograph to the viewer. These differences created a tension in the craft that the Linked Ring sought to change.

Founded May, 1892, by Henry Peach Robinson

Henry Peach Robinson

Henry Peach Robinson was an English pictorialist photographer best known for his pioneering combination printing - joining multiple negatives to form a single image, the precursor to photomontage...

, and former Photographic Society member George Davidson the Brotherhood was "a means of bringing together those who are interested in the development of the highest form of Art of which Photography is capable." Convened by invitation only, other members of the Brotherhood included William Smedley-Aston

William Smedley-Aston

William Smedley-Aston was a Victorian Pre-Raphaelite Arts & Crafts photographer and member of the Linked Ring Brotherhood. He was also known as W. S. Aston or W...

, Frank Sutcliffe, Frederick H. Evans

Frederick H. Evans

Frederick H. Evans was a noted British photographer, primarily of architectural subjects. He is best known for his images of English and French cathedrals. Evans began his career as a bookseller, but retired from that to become a full-time photographer in 1898, when he adopted the platinotype...

, Paul Martin

Paul Martin

Paul Edgar Philippe Martin, PC , also known as Paul Martin, Jr. is a Canadian politician who was the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, as well as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....

, Alvin Langdon Coburn

Alvin Langdon Coburn

Alvin Langdon Coburn was an early 20th century photographer who became a key figure in the development of American pictorialism...

, Frederick Hollyer

Frederick Hollyer

Frederick Hollyer was an English photographer and engraver known for his photographic reproductions of paintings and drawings, particularly those of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and for portraits of literary and artistic figures of late Victorian and Edwardian London.-Family:Hollyer was the...

, J. B. B. Wellington

James Booker Blakemore Wellington

James Booker Blakemore Wellington aka J. B. B. Wellington was an English photographer who originally trained as architectural draughtsman. In the 1880s, however, an association with George Eastman in New York, drew him into the world of photography...

, Richard Keene

Richard Keene

Richard Keene was an early Derbyshire photographer. He was a founding member of The Derby Photographic Society in 1884 and the Photographic Convention of the United Kingdom in 1886 as well as being an early member of The Linked Ring.-Life:Keene was the son of Richard Keene and Priscilla Kimpton,...

, James Craig Annan, Alfred Horsley Hinton, Lydell Sawyer, Alfred Maskell and, later, Americans Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his fifty-year career in making photography an accepted art form...

 and Clarence H. White

Clarence Hudson White

Clarence Hudson White was an American photographer, teacher and a founding member of the Photo-Secession movement. He grew up in small towns in Ohio, where his primary influences were his family and the social life of rural America. After visiting the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in...

. Though female photographers such as Zaida Ben-Yusuf

Zaida Ben-Yusuf

Zaida Ben-Yusuf was a New York-based portrait photographer noted for her artistic portraits of wealthy, fashionable, and famous Americans of the turn of the 19th-20th century. She was born in London to a German mother and an Algerian father, but became a naturalised American citizen later in life...

 exhibited at the annual shows during the 1890s, it was not until 1900 that Gertrude Käsebier

Gertrude Käsebier

Gertrude Käsebier was one of the most influential American photographers of the early 20th century. She was known for her evocative images of motherhood, her powerful portraits of Native Americans and her promotion of photography as a career for women.-Early life :Käsebier was born Gertrude...

 became one of the first elected female members of the Ring.

Linked Ring Successes

In November 1893, Robinson created the Photographic Salon ”, an annual exhibit event in England whose aim was to "exhibit (images) that are description of pictorial photography in which there is distinct evidence of personal feeling and execution."As a result, interest grew in processes such as gum bi-chromate, oil pigment and transfer, and supported the trend in producing images not for reproduction, but works of high value, as well as creating interest in surface texture, papers, and color of print.

In 1896 they began publishing The Linked Ring Papers, which were circulated annually to members until 1909 to promote and discuss the aesthetics and practice of Pictorialism.

Photo-Secession - the American counterpart of the Linked Ring

Formed by photographer Alfred Stieglitz in 1902. Determined to prove photography had artistic expression similar to that of painting and sculpture, thus emphasizing further the craftsmanship abilities of photography. Photo Secession members were also called American Links, and displayed works not at the Photo Salon, but in the Little Galleries at Fifth Avenue, New York, New York. Members include Mary Devens, Frank Eugene, Gertrude Kasabier, William B. Dyer, Eva Watson Shutze, Eduard Steichen, Edmund Stirling, and Clarence White. Harker, Margaret. The Linked Ring. WIlliam Heinemann Ltd. London 1979. Print

Prominent Members & Contributions

Pictorialist James Craig Annan, born into a household at the forefront of photography technology. In 1866 his father created a four foot print of an eleven foot painting with the new process of carbon printing. This became Annan’s primary influence to become a skilled photographer himself. At a young age, learned the process of photogravure in Vienna on a trip with his father.This process allowed Annan to work like an etcher, sharpening, shading, or blurring areas of the picture. Describing this process as “a long drawn out pleasure.”

Fredrick Evan, responsible for leading the (Linked Ring) photography magazines, writing publications for the newspaper, and installing at Photo Salon. Regarded as being one of the most gifted and sensitive of "the Links" Evans is known for his images of architecture, specifically cathedrals. Known to have spent weeks living in the cathedrals he photographed waiting for ideal lighting conditions to reveal the poetry in his subjects.

Frank. S. Sutcliffe, most well known for his image “Water Rats”, exemplary of being one of the first images showing depth of field accomplished in camera.

The Brotherhood represented themselves with a logo of three interlinked rings, which were meant in part to represent the Masonic beliefs of Good, True, and Beautiful.

Additional information

Margaret F. Harker, The Linked Ring: The Secession in Photography in Britain 1892-1910. London: Heinemann, 1979