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The Photographer at Work. Documenting Civil Engineering 1853 to 1913.

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A beautifully produced catalogue of photographs highlighting the intersections between civil engineering and photography from 1853 to 1915, lavishly illustrated with over 400 photographic illustrations.

‘The construction of large and impressive civil-engineering structures coincided perfectly with the new medium of photography. Just as photographers were developing better techniques, civil engineers were building structures worthy of being photographed. The surge in construction, in terms of both scale and number of structures, required new means to document progress, and photography was the perfect vehicle for engineers to quickly, easily and precisely do so’ (p. 5).

Beginning with portrait photographs of the civil engineer and designer of locomotives Robert Stephenson, The Photographer at Work highlights the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge and Montreal’s Victoria Bridge – the longest railway bridge in the world at the time of its construction – before featuring photographic albums on individual civil engineering projects, with a great deal of material on French infrastructure, the Paris metro, and the Panama Canal. Here, the photographs – many of which are full- or double-page spreads – take centre stage, showing not only an impressive array of canals, water supply systems, harbours, lighthouses, railway bridges, and tunnels, but also fascinating portraits of builders and engineers at work.