The first era of history that I was fascinated by was the Victorian Era. I think one of the reasons why this era captured my attention as a child was because it was the first era in history to be documented by photography. It is the first era where you can look into the eyes of a person who lived hundreds of years before you and get a glimpse of their soul. 

I love the look of Victorian portraiture. It was rigid and proper, yet strangely romantic. My second semester at Milligan I was given the opportunity to use a large format view camera and I knew I had to do a series with it. There is something magical in meticulously setting up a shot, composing it just right, and then hitting the shutter. The process of taking a large format photo is a slow, methodical one that helps you to really figure out the image you want before you take the photo. 

This project has helped me learn to be patient. I don’t have an infinite amount of photos to take to “find” the right one. I have limited opportunities to get it right. Victorians often only had one photo taken of them in a lifetime, if at all, and it had to be perfect. It would be the only likeness of you to survive after death. As photography has become a more and more accessible form of documentation the stakes have lowered dramatically. Having the opportunity to take photos of humans with those stakes heightened again has been an incredibly valuable experience that will help me think more before I press down on the shutter, even in the digital age.