Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level F , Case X, Shelf 971

Watermill, Essex

Photograph
probably 1960s or 1970s (photographed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Eric de Mare, a trained architect and one of the most acclaimed architectural photographers in Britain, devoted much of his career to recording Britain's neglected industrial heritage. His photographs of bridges, factories, and warehouses demonstrated that functional design was not an invention of the twentieth century, but had a long and honourable tradition in British architecture. De Mare's spare, almost austere style is much in evidence in this image of an anonymous watermill in rural Essex, which he treats with the dignity usually accorded to monumental architecture.


Object details

Category
Object type
TitleWatermill, Essex (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Gelatin silver print
Brief description
Photograph, 'Watermill, Essex', by Eric de Mare
Physical description
A photograph of the facade of an old wooden mill; most of the doors and windows are open. Several filled sacks lean against the wall at lower right.
Dimensions
  • Height: 292mm
  • Width: 290mm
Historical context
Eric de Mare, a trained architect, was one of the most acclaimed British architectural photographers of the 1960s and 1970s. From the late 1940s, he received a series of commissions to document Britain's relatively neglected industrial heritage; much of his oeuvre consists of striking images of bridges, factories, and warehouses. In 1958 he collaborated with J M Richards on the book The Functional Tradition in Early Industrial Buildings, which demonstrated that functional design had not been an invention of the 1930s, but had a long tradition in British architecture.
Subject depicted
Place depicted
Summary
Eric de Mare, a trained architect and one of the most acclaimed architectural photographers in Britain, devoted much of his career to recording Britain's neglected industrial heritage. His photographs of bridges, factories, and warehouses demonstrated that functional design was not an invention of the twentieth century, but had a long and honourable tradition in British architecture. De Mare's spare, almost austere style is much in evidence in this image of an anonymous watermill in rural Essex, which he treats with the dignity usually accorded to monumental architecture.
Collection
Accession number
PH.17-1984

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Record createdJanuary 5, 2006
Record URL
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