St. Magnus, London Bridge - The Steeple
Architect: Christopher Wren
Original antique photographic print
Published by George Birch, 1896
Little is known of Charles Latham's early life, how he learnt his craft as a photographer, or the start of his career but by 1874 he was based in London. Latham worked for publishers such as Ernst Wasmuth and Batsford, specializing in architecture and outdoor topics.
His first work for Batsford was with the architect John Alfred Gotch on his book Architecture of the Renaissance in England. He then worked on George Birch's book on London churches of the 17th and 18th centuries, from which this image originates. The work has been described as "the handsomest piece of preservation propaganda ever printed".
Latham became staff photographer of the magazine Country Life shortly after it was founded in 1897 by Edward Hudson. The format of the magazine was made possible by technical advances in printing that allowed high quality photographic images and text to be printed on the same page. The magazine featured golf and racing news, advertisements for country homes, and articles about aspects of country life including houses and gardens. Many of the photographs accompanying these articles were by Latham, and the topics included both old established houses such as Coleshill, in Berkshire (a seventeenth century house, now lost), as well as newly built ones, such as Goddards in Surrey, designed by Edwin Lutyens, with gardens by Gertrude Jekyll. Latham did not only work in Britain. In 1903 he travelled to Italy to photograph gardens there, taking with him a large format camera and many glass-plate negatives. Three books were published by Country Life between 1900 and 1905 featuring his work: Gardens Old and New, In English Homes, and The Gardens of Italy.
Latham's reputation was firmly established by the time he started working for Country Life. Gotch said of him, "The art of fitly illustrating architecture has not been widely acquired and we hold ourselves fortunate in having secured the services of Latham." A review of In English Homes in The New York Times described him as"perhaps the best-known photographic interpreter of English architecture". His style was of necessity often formal, as he worked within constraints defined by his authors and publishers but he often included people and props into his compositions, particularly in the Country Life work where he had more freedom. For his interiors he often removed much of the furniture and ornaments from a room, ensuring clarity and emphasizing the original architecture.
There are few personal reminiscences of Latham. One is from Harold Batsford, who remembered him as a man with a red beard, a limp, and the complete absence of the letter H. On one occasion, Latham was planning to photograph a house that had been subjected to unfortunate Victorian "improvements". He looked around and then said to the owner "'ateful and 'ideous. I'm glad I kept my cab" and stalked out. He was clearly no gentleman photographer.
