Lucy Lorimar Commentary:
The photography studio is running quite well. We have a consistent customer base and are making easily enough money to provide for everyone. Recently things in the business have begun to change probably for the better. In the beginning of the studio, we all worked closely together; however, now we have families and do not work as closely as before. This is a portrait I did of my beautiful children. After having my children, I decided to focus more on children’s portraits in the photography studio. It brings me great joy and a feeling of happiness to work with children. They are so full of innocence and light and working with them gives me a glimpse back into my own childhood. I remember when my sisters and I were young my dad would take us out into the hills outside of the city to run and play. He would play games with us and wander the woods for hours. He would bring a picnic along and we would all eat as the sun set. After the sunset, we would stay up watching and looking at the stars. My father knew all the constellations and he would teach them to us. When we finally got tired my father would bring us home and tuck us into bed. These memories of my father are what made my childhood so memorable and amazing. I wish I could go back to life as a child. Everything was simple, no worries or responsibilities. Just my sisters, and my father, and I.
Editorial Commentary:
After the photography studio that Lucy and her sisters had started and grown into a full business, Lucy decided to focus more on children’s portraits rather than general photographs. When photography first came to be, “photography was first employed in portraiture; that is, it was employed to preserve those mental images which we most dislike to lose, the images of familiar faces.... photography came as a welcome salve to keep those precious, if slightly ridiculous, things a little longer in the world” (Freeland). The practice of portraits in photography closely relates to paintings of portraits. However, portraits in photography were far more important because they were able to depict exactly what the person looked like. This is unlike paintings that could sometimes be slightly off in the slightest of details. This was part of the reason that “by 1853, three million daguerreotypes were being made annually and there were eighty-six portrait galleries in New York City alone” (Freeland). The rapid growth of portraits through photography shows just how fast growing and influential the photography business was that the Lorimar sisters decided to start a business in. Lucy likely realized that her children were the most important thing in her life, and she wanted to connect the most important thing in her life to her line of work: Her photography studio. By making this connection, Lucy began to love her work even more than before. The portrait above is Lucy’s children and the photograph is of course extremely important to Lucy.
Works Cited:
Freeland, Cynthia. “Portraits in painting and photography.” Philosophical Studies, vol. 135, no. 1, 2007, pp. 95–109, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-007-9099-7.
BROCARD, Laurent. “United Kingdom Carlisle Children Victorian Fashion Old Cdv Photo Kidd 1865.” Bits of Our Past, www.past-to-present.com/A03704. Accessed 25 Oct. 2023.