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[Henry Hamilton Bennett with his Family: Ashley, Harriet and Nellie]

Creator

American Photographer · 1843–1908

Artist

His right hand crippled from a wound suffered during the Civil War and seeking a new career, Henry Hamilton Bennett bought a photographic studio in his hometown of Kilbourn, Wisconsin (later renamed Wisconsin Dells). He built most of his own equipment, from his camera to a stereograph-mounting machine. Ever the inventor, he developed an instantaneous shutter that allowed him to stop action and bui

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Date: about 1888
Medium: Albumen silver print
Culture: American
Department: Photographs
Institution: Getty Museum

Henry Hamilton Bennett ran his photography studio with the assistance of his family. He photographed himself with three of his children in the drawing room, which conspicuously displays two paintings and a sculpture of what appears to be a Civil War subject. The inclusion of the fine arts in an otherwise sparsely furnished room with worn floors and plain walls shows the importance of art to Bennett and this photographer's desire to align himself with the traditional arts. A painted landscape hangs on the wall directly above Bennett's head. He was a committed landscape photographer and land conservationist, so his symbolic placement under this image hints at his ambitions and interests. Furthering the connection between aesthetic contemplation and Bennett's profession, the daughter seated next to him seems to be perusing a photograph album, emphasizing both family unity and professional affirmation.

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