ABSTRACT
AsVioletDodgsonpointedoutinherlecturetotheLeamingtonSpa LiterarySocietyon17October1949,'inhis24thyearfournotablethings happenedtohim[Carroll]':hemettheLiddellgirls,wenttothetheatre forthefirsttime,tookupphotographyandbegantowrite.1Thatan interestinthetheatreshouldcoincidewithoneinphotographywasnot particularlysurprisingorunusualatthattime.Indeedthenextfiftyyears couldbeseenasaprogressiontowardstheunificationofthetwoartsin the'movingpictures'ofearlyfilm.RolandBarthes,theleadingFrench authorityonstructuralismandsemiology,hasarguedthattheconnection betweenthetheatreandphotographygoesfarbeyondsharedtechnology andtechniques.InCameraLucidaReflectionsonPhotographyBarthes wrote:
ForBarthesthereis'nothingProustianinaphotograph',theeffectof whichonhim'isnottorestorewhathasbeenabolished(bytime,by distance)buttoattestthatwhatIseehasactuallyexisted'(p.82).He describeswhatheseesinthephotographas'realityinapaststate:atonce thepastandreal...notamemory,animagination,areconstitution...Every photographisacertificateofpresence.'(pp.86-7)
AsCarolMavorobservesitissignificantthatforBarthes'themost meaningful(performative)photographinCameraLucidaisoneofhis
mother as a little girl: the famous Winter Garden Photograph ... taken when she was five ... [in] 1898'. The brevity of the moment captured by the camera, the speed of the aging process and the inevitability of death combine to imbue these images with immense poignancy: 'Their [of the Liddell sisters and the Llewelyn Davies boys] pictures are no more and no less than a keepsake of a golden splash.' (Mavor, 1995, pp. 5-6)
At the time when he embarked on his passions for theatre and photography Carroll was at his most carefree, developing his skills as a home entertainer in various ways including the marionette theatre, a magic lantern and his one-man performances for which he practised several voices. It is apparent from his diary entry for 29 January 1856 that Carroll was thinking of a way in which these different elements could be combined: 'I think it would be a very good idea to have slides of a magic lantern painted to represent characters in some play, which might be read aloud, a sort of Marionette performance.' On 13 December 1856 Carroll 'chose a Magic Lantern and slides at Watkin and Hills for the Croft school', where on 31 December he gave his 'first exhibition of the Magic Lantern' to an audience of 'about 80 children'. He 'divided it into two parts, of 24 and 23 pictures, with a rest of about half an hour between. I introduced 13 songs in the course of the performance, six for myself, and seven for the children; and employed seven different voices'.
