The pre-rafaelite lens. British photography and painting, 1848-18

As photography steadily gained a foothold in the 1840s, a group of British painters calling themselves the Pre-Raphaelites came of age. Answering John Ruskin´s call to study nature, ´rejecting nothing, selecting nothing, and scorning nothing,´ these young painters were also spurred on by the possibilities of the new medium (introduced in 1839), particularly its ability to capture every nuance, every detail. And yet, the Pre-Raphaelites´ debt to photography has barely been acknowledged.