Gezicht op Ugbrooke te Chudleigh c. 1850 - 1880

This is Francis Bedford’s stereoscopic albumen print of Ugbrooke House in Chudleigh. Produced in the mid-19th century, the photograph provides a window into the era’s social hierarchies and aesthetic preferences. Ugbrooke House, ancestral seat of the Clifford family, stands as a testament to inherited privilege. Bedford’s composition frames the estate from across a placid lake, reinforcing a sense of distance between the viewer and the opulence on display. As photography democratized image-making, it also served to perpetuate existing power structures. Bedford, as a commercial photographer, catered to the Victorian middle class eager to consume idealized images of the British landscape and its landed gentry. The black-and-white medium further abstracts the scene, distilling it into a study of light and shadow that speaks to the romantic sensibility of the time. What do we make of this picturesque scene, when we consider its legacy as a symbol of enduring class divisions?