Women in Ruins

Agnes and Dora Bulwer’s landscape photographs of the Roman countryside from the 1890s through to circa 1913 offer a vision that challenged the dominant gaze as developed in Grand Tour photography, traditional vedutas of Rome and surrounding environments, or documentation of archaeological sites. Unfettered by the archaeologist’s need for ascetic facts or the romantic’s aspiration to isolated ruins, their extensive body of work offers an unusual perspective of urban views of Rome as well as landscapes of the Roman Campagna and beyond. Living within the progressive international environment of post-unification Italy, Agnes and Dora Bulwer often photographed women, whether Italian peasants or travelling companions from their own social group, adopting a socially engaged and gendered gaze. The analysis of their photographs helps us to reconsider their work in the light of a dawning international humanitarianism. In spite of their legacy of more than 1200 original prints and nearly 890 nitrate negatives to the British School at Rome, Agnes and Dora Bulwer remain relatively unknown in the growing group of rediscovered early female photographers connected to archaeology or travel photography. This article discusses their work within a cross-cultural and art historical analysis and seeks to contribute to the history of British landscape photography in Italy at the turn of the century.