Arthur Radclyffe Dugmore

Arthur Vaux Venner Radclyffe Dugmore (1870–1955) was a Welsh-born American naturalist and wildlife photographer, painter, print-maker and author. He turned from "hunting to capturing his subjects on paper and canvas." Early life Dugmore was born December 25, 1870, in Bodalog, near Betws-y-Coed, Wales, the second son of Captain Francis Sandys Dugmore and Emily Evelyn, a daughter of William Brougham, 2nd Baron Brougham and Vaux. His father served in The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada before his birth, and later in the 64th Regiment of Foot. Dugmore was educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey, and later in Kadıköy and Bournabat (in modern day Turkey). He studied painting at the Instituto di Belle Arti in Naples, and went to America in 1889. In 1901 he was married to Henrietta Louise Watkins, and with her had three children. He was elected to The Camera Club of New York in 1902 and presented his work in their exhibitions. In 1902 Dugmore's photography caught the attention of Alfred Stieglitz, the single most important figure in American photography at that time, who published Dugmore's article entitled "Effective Lighting in Bird Photography" and his photogravure of small birds on a branch as illustration in the first issue of Stieglitz' quarterly photographic journal Camera Work. Stieglitz explained that he had chosen Dugmore's photograph because it demonstrated that "even scientific subjects may be given pictorial worth without loss to their scientific value." His photographs were exhibited in London in 1903 at the Royal Photographic Society annual show. In 1905 his work was included in the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition held in Portland, Oregon. Dugmore designed the cover for Country Life in America three times in 1906 and in 1907 and 1908, his thirteen-part series entitled "The Amateur Photographer" was published in the magazine. In 1909 and 1911 his articles were published in the American Annual of Photography. Dugmore, the naturalist and sportsman, took part in photo-safaris in Newfoundland in 1907, Kenya in 1909-1910 and back to Newfoundland in 1913. In 1908 Dugmore and James Lippit Clark undertook the Dugmore/Clark photo safari to Africa where Clark took photographs for Collier’s Weekly. On that voyage Clark produced the first film on African wildlife and brought specimens back for hunters including Theodore Roosevelt and for American museums. He joined the Royal Photographic Society in 1912 and gained his Fellowship in 1913.