Museum of Miniature Found Objects

This image is from the work of Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, taken circa 1880 in Whitby. The subject of his study is unnamed. Sutcliffe was a photographer who earned his living in Whitby at the end of the nineteenth century as a portrait photographer, though his real interest appears to have been documenting the lives of the fishing community in the town. This photograph combines the nineteenth century's romanticisation of rusticity with notions of beauty from classical antiquity. Sutcliffe has photographed the young fishwife at her work in an arabesque pose (with all its references to classical Greek sculpture), isolating her from her fellow workers who appear blurred and distanced. It's a satisfying image to look at.