Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, Whitby Photography

Even if you have never stepped foot in Whitby, you might still recognise Frank Meadow Sutcliffe’s famous photography. In this article, we go into detail and discover just who was Frank Meadow Sutcliffe. 

Through Sutcliffe’s photography, we catch an actual glimpse of the daily lives of the people who lived and worked in Whitby. We see the wide and varied activities of local life in a busy harbour town. The Abbey, the harbour, fisherfolk, children at play, street scenes of Whitby, Robin Hood’s Bay, Sandsend, Runswick Bay, and Staithes all feature in Sutcliffe’s extensive catalogue. It’s amazing to look back at the place we know and love so well. His work is captivating. Here, you can learn more about Frank Meadow Sutcliffe.

“To some an extremely sharp picture may be positively painful, for it will perhaps disturb and break the train of thought, whereas a less-defined one would allow the mind to wander at its own sweet will.”

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Frank Meadow Sutcliffe

Frank Meadow Sutcliffe

Born in 1853, Francis Meadow (Frank) Sutcliffe was a pioneering photographic artist. His work was a record of what life was truly like in the town of Whitby and the surrounding area. His real, raw and thought-provoking images through the late Victorian era and early 20th century led to him being named ‘pictorial Boswell of Whitby’.  

Sutcliffe was born in Headingley, Leeds. His father was a landscape artist named Thomas Sutcliffe. His mother was Sarah Lorentia Button. From creative beginnings, Sutcliffe often slept in his father’s studio as the eldest of eight siblings.

Sutcliffe’s father gave him his first camera

His father gave him a large camera and huge negatives to develop in a darkroom he made in an old hayloft where they were living. From that day on, with that gift, he was learning. He had an elementary education at a dame school and also found a love for the new technology of photography there.

Sutcliffe moved to Whitby in 1870 with his family, although sadly his father died a year later of pneumonia. At this time Sutcliffe was just 18 and had to become the head of the family and he chose portrait photography to make his living.

Photographing the people around him

Frank moved to Bloomfield Terrace in Whitby after a short stint as a portrait photographer. He established a portrait business out of his Skinner Street studio, which was an old jet workshop.

By photographing the people around him that he knew well just simply going about their daily routine, he built up a body of photographs of the late Victorian town and the people who lived and worked there.

What camera did Sutcliffe use?

He used a mahogany whole plate camera on a tripod with slow exposure wet-plates, and dry-plates soon came along to use without the need for a portable darkroom. He could take and carry approx 12 exposures, which is unimaginable now as were so unlimited with the amount of photos we can produce.

Sutcliffe was passionate about landscape photos, but they didn’t directly make him money. They did help him to become well known, so tourists would be desperate to have their portrait taken by him.

He didn’t like people to look directly at the camera. He liked it to look like he had taken a candid shot, however with the slow exposure that just wasn’t possible as people had to stay still for an extended amount of time. To get the composition he was acquiring he had to arrange people in his photographs to look natural, so he must have had a great rapport to be able to direct people and distract them from their busy days.

At the age of 70, he became the curator of the Whitby Gallery and Museum. He held this post until he died in 1941 at the age of 87.

Sutciffe’s work

His work was widely exhibited and he received numerous awards for his photographs. Sutcliffe was also a member of The Linked Ring (also known as “The Brotherhood of the Linked Ring”), a prestigious British photographic society that included art photographers such as Henry Peach Robinson, Alvin Langdon Coburn, and Fredrick H. Evans.

Girls skaning mussels is representative of the photography commonly seen during the period. The more you look at the photo, the more you see. For instance, the two women cautiously peering out of their doorways in the background of the girls skaning mussels.

The photos are so remarkable that it’s challenging not to romanticise the places and lives depicted within them. Nevertheless, it’s important to acknowledge the reality. These were not affluent individuals; the living conditions for the ordinary people of Whitby were evidently challenging.

Whereas this image of the harbour in Whitby is an excellent example of pictorialism. Full of atmosphere and sense of place.

Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, was there controversy?

Sutcliffe’s photography was not free of controversy. His most famous photograph, entitled Water Rats, featured a group of naked children playing in and around a boat.

As Sutcliffe’s Wikipedia entry notes, “the image is not erotic. Sutcliffe was using the conventions of the academic nude to show how photography can approach art.” It was even purchased by the then Prince of Wales (who would later become Edward VII).

Yet, it was still enough to get Sutcliffe excommunicated by his local church. Why? They claimed that it was likely to “corrupt” women!

It’s one of our personal favourites.

Can you purchase Frank Meadow Sutcliffe’s prints today?

Unfortunately, The Sutcliffe Gallery is now permanently closed.

The Whitby Museum has acquired the entire enhanced Frank Meadow Sutcliffe Collection and its associated merchandise and publishing rights from the ‘Sutcliffe Gallery’, previously owned by Mike and Trish Shaw.

Over the years, the museum has built an extensive collection of photographs from over 17,000 glass plates and film negatives dating back to the 1860s. The museum possesses the complete collection of the original Sutcliffe glass plates as well as other prints, slides, and glass lantern slides by various photographers.

They will soon be organising the management and sale of prints and images through their museum shop and website.

There is a level of clarity in the reproductions beyond what we would normally find in historic prints. This in no way detracts from the quality of the work presented. In fact, it allows these wonders to be seen at their very best.

You can also purchase a selection of Frank Meadow Sutcliffe prints via our online shop.

HOMAGE TO F. M. SUTCLIFFE

The Whitby that has long gone by
Still lives within your seeing eye,
And we who come beyond your time
Can in imagination climb
The narrow streets and cobbled ways –
That Whitby of those far-off days.
For you have left, that all may share,
Photographs beyond compare,
Of bearded patriarchs of the sea,
And bare-skinned boys who well may be
Of patriarchal age
If they still walk upon life’s stage;
And bonny fisher-lasses too,
With many a rare and perfect view
Of harbour side and Abbey plain:
Of misty coast and country lane,
Of great shire horses on the land,
And country men who sturdy stand
To look at us across the years
With such calm eyes, so free from fears,
That now are almost quite unknown
So much the world has lost its own.
Yet, so long as beauty shall survive,
So long will Sutcliffe be alive.

Tom Stamp

The lasting legacy of Sutcliffe’s photography is a testament to the ambition of a man who wanted to document the world as it is seen.

Frank Meadow Sutcliffe’s expertise as a photographer positioned him at the forefront of creative practice. His work displays a level of precision that distinguishes him as a truly exceptional artist, a rarity among his contemporaries.

His photographs reveal a close personal attachment to his subject. He truly loved Whitby and cared about the people he was photographing.