Life on the Norfolk Broads

Idyllic images of the waterways of eastern England.

Alex Q. Arbuckle

1885-1888

"Gathering Water Lilies." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

Photographer Peter Henry Emerson captured distinctly “natural” photos of the Norfolk broads, a flat region of interconnected shallow rivers, marshes and fens in eastern England. The photos' soft tones, peaceful, agrarian scenes and absence of modern symbols would go on to inspire the Pictorialism movement, which rejected the cold scientific realism and posited photography as a way to express emotional intent.At first a wealthy and highly educated British surgeon, Emerson bought his first camera in the early 1880s to use on bird-watching expeditions. He later became a prominent figure in the photography world, as well as a controversial one. He insisted that art and photography should be based in science, and that naturalistic photos should replicate the selective focus of the human eye. He dismissed many contemporary artistic photographers as pretentious.Ultimately he abandoned medicine and spent several years photographing the traditional occupations of rural farmers and fishers on the Norfolk Broads. He published his idyllic photos in several books, including Life and Landscape on the Norfolk Broads and Pictures of East Anglian Life.

"Snipe Shooting." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"The Poacher." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"The Old Order and the New." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"A Sailing Match at Horning." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"The Haunt of the Pike." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"Poling the Marsh Hay." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"Quanting the Marsh Hay." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"A Rushy Shore." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"A Spring Idyl." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"Cantley: Wherries Waiting for the Turn of the Tide." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"Setting the Bow-Net." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"Rowing Home the Schoof-Stuff." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"The Fowlers Return." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"An Eel Catcher's Home." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"A Marsh Farm." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"A Reed-Cutter at Work." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"During the Reed Harvest." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"Ricking the Reed." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"Coming Home from the Marshes." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"Towing the Reed." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"A Fisherman at Home." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"Marshman Going to Cut Schoof-Stuff." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"Gunner Working up to Fowl." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"The Stickleback Catcher." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"Setting up the Bow-Net." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"The Gladdon-Cutters Return." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"On Southwold Marshes." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"Taking up the Eel Net." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"Keeper's Cottage, Amwell Magna Fishery." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"The Basket-Maker." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"Eel-Picking in Suffolk Waters." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"A Ruined Water-Mill." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"A Suffolk Dike." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"A Garden End." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images

"The Skirt of the Village." Credit: Peter Henry Emerson/Royal Photographic Society/SSPL/Getty Images