Varieties of Photographic Experience: Frederick H. Evans and the Lantern Slide

Abstract

Frederick H. Evans (1853–1943) spent the turn of the twentieth century photographing English and French cathedrals, always using the church to figure a particularly late Victorian alarm at the lost vitality these medieval structures symbolized. This article illuminates his art’s deep religious stakes by exploring the mystical resonances of his stated preference for the lantern slide as a support for his images, a matter that has been long overlooked despite his extensive articles on the topic. Evans’s cathedral photographs are most fully comprehended when his promotion of glass over paper is acknowledged and interpreted through his affiliation to Swedenborgianism.

Keywords

• Emanuel Swedenborg
• faith Frederick H. Evans lantern slide Lincoln Cathedral Mysticism photography Pictorialism vision
• faith
• Frederick H. Evans
• lantern slide
• photography
• british art
• Lincoln Cathedral
• mysticism
• pictorials
• vision