Ernest was active in publishing and exhibiting his photographs. His practice of exhibiting began in 1895 when he was 29 years old, and continued regularly through 1913, covering 18 years. He continued to write for the photographic press from time to time at least up to the start of WW2, and probably gave lantern slide lectures on church architecture through the 1920s.
The table below shows exhibitions and some publications we know about during his most active period. There are a few exhibitions in the USA and Italy which showed his prints, always in conjunction with those from other RPS exhibitors – we presume that he didn’t actually attend these shows personally, merely participated in an organised group event.
Two pictures were shown in the London Salon of the Linked Ring, 1900 and 1902 – he does not seem ever to have been a member of this famous group, though was obviously a supporter of their pictorialist philosophy, at least at that period of his life.
| Date | Exhibition, Event, Publication | Pictures by Ernest Marriage |
|---|---|---|
| 1895 | Royal Photographic Society 40th Annual Exhibition | 12 lantern slides [Medal] |
| 1896 | Photograms of the Year | 85 The Crypt, St Peters in the East, Oxford |
| 1896 | Royal Photographic Society 41st Annual Exhibition | 327 Capital, Canterbury Cathedral; 335 Capital, Canterbury Cathedral; 362 12 lantern slides, church architecture, Norman transition |
| 1897 | Photograms of the Year | An Old Belfry |
| 1897 | Royal Photographic Society 42nd Annual Exhibition | 221 An Old Belfry; 442 12 Lantern Slides |
| 1898 | “Crowded out of PY98” | St Sebastian’s Chapel, Neuwiler |
| 1898 | Royal Photographic Society 43rd Annual Exhibition | 159 “Oh, hey for somebody”; 263 St Sebastian’s Chapel, Neuwiler |
| 1899 | American Institute Photographic Salon (New York) | 214 St Sebastian’s Chapel, Neuwiler; 215 Capital in the Crypt, Canterbury Cathedral |
| 1899 | Photograms of the Year | 34 Water Lilies |
| 1899 | Royal Photographic Society 44th Annual Exhibition | 360 Water Lilies |
| 1899 | RPS Lantern Lecture | Telephotographic Studies |
| 1900 | 8th Annual Exhibition of the Photographic Salon [Linked Ring] | 51 Madame X |
| 1900 | Photograms of the Year | 98 A Street in Spoleto |
| 1901 | Photograms of the Year | 57 Morning |
| 1902 | 10th Annual Exhibition of the Photographic Salon [Linked Ring] | The Parasol |
| 1902 | 15th Annual exhibition of pictures in connection with the Yorkshire Union of Artists | 549 Bower Hill Viaduct; 559 “Oh, hey for somebody”; 575 Perugia & Mount Subasio |
| 1902 | Esposizione internazionale di fotografia artistica Torino [Turin] | 1020 Venisse qualcuno!; 1043 Viadotto di Bower Hill; 1088 Una cattedrale francese |
| 1902 | Photograms of the Year | 39 Bargemen |
| 1902 | Royal Photographic Society 47th Annual Exhibition | 78 La Foret du Trait; 104 Barges on the Lea; 106 The Lacemaker |
| 1903 | Photograms of the Year | 124 The Towpath |
| 1903 | Royal Photographic Society 48th Annual Exhibition | 139 The Parasol; 548 Telephotograph of a Capital, Canterbury Cathedral; 552 North Door Rheims |
| 1904 | Photograms of the Year | 80 Miss B |
| 1904 | RPS Lantern Lecture | The Sculptures of Chartres Cathedral |
| 1905 | Royal Photographic Society 50th Annual Exhibition | 206 Water Buttercups |
| 1906 | 6th Chicago Photographic Salon | 223 Carcassonne; 224 The Tow Path; 225 The Water Cart |
| 1906 | RPS Lantern Lecture | Some churches of central France |
| 1907 | Photograms of the Year | 113 The Decay of an Old House |
| 1908 | Royal Photographic Society 53rd nnual Exhibition | 662 The Bluebell Wood; 663 The Statuette |
| 1909 | Photograms of the Year | 36 Laon |
| 1909 | Royal Photographic Society 54th Annual Exhibition | 181 At the Bullfight |
| 1910 | Photograms of the Year | A Large Low Moon |
| 1910 | Royal Photographic Society 55th Annual Exhibition | 66 A Large Low Moon |
| 1911 | Photograms of the Year | 76 Requiescat in pace |
| 1911 | Royal Photographic Society 56th Annual Exhibition | 646 Four micrographs of jam adulteration |
| 1913 | Royal Photographic Society 58th Annual Exhibition | A set of prints on detecting the adulteration of factory-made jams |
Ernest in “Photograms”
As we have seen, Ernest regularly had work published in Photograms of the Year, and at least one article in the magazine Photograms which is reproduced in the “articles” section. A selection is shown below.
Source – Photograms of the Year 1895 – 1915. All these are “Art” pictures, in the prevailing pictorialist style, and some architectural work. No signs of jam here. In many cases the author of the annual wrote a brief critique, which is shown alongside the picture.
1896 p 85 – The Crypt, St Peters in the East, Oxford
1897 – An Old Belfry
… a curious case of coincidence. If the sketch of this picture be compared with the half-tone of Ernest Marriage’s An Old Belfry it will be seen that two different workers have struck practically the same idea, and, so far as memory serves, for the first time in photographic exhibiting. The scheme is sufficiently novel to be quite a striking and individual thing, – and here it is, practically in duplicate.
1898 In the magazine – “crowded out of PY98”, St Sebastian’s Chapel, Neuwiler
Ernest Marriage gives us a good example of the more modern school of architecture in which there is an attempt to select and depict one phase of the builder’s thought, rather than to deal with the full harmony (or discord, as the case may be) of a great cathedral’s vastness.
1899 p. 34 – Water Lilies
Water Lilies, by Ernest Marriage, is scarcely so successful, if considered as a flower study, but as a natural decorative arrangement, suggestive for the designer, it has considerable merit. It is a suggestion rather than a complete thing, for the very conventionality of its arrangement of the flowers (though really a natural grouping) seems to suggest the necessity for a “repeat” along a strip of fabric or wall paper
1900 p 98 – A Street in Spoleto
Ernest Marriage, by way of a change, has endeavoured to show in A Street in Spoleto that flower and telephoto subjects need not wholly occupy him. The general effect is good, but spoiled by the unreality of the door in the foreground, which seems detached from its fastenings.
1901 p 57 – Morning
Ernest Marriage has made a great effort to prove that he is no circumscribed worker in a narrow field. Previously he has occupied himself largely with landscape and architecture. Now he enters the ranks of the problem fighters. Morning is a serious attempt to grapple with a difficult interior in sunlight. A figure in deshabille stands with her back to the spectator, and over her left shoulder the light streams in rays deflected by the partly closed Venetian blinds. The shadows of these are thrown on the figure and the face, as we see in the mirror reflection. The endeavor to portray all this stops short of success at a vital point. A dense black shadow covers the right side of the head, shoulder, and arm. Had this shadow been detailed the experiment would have been altogether different. In its way this subject is one of the most interesting trial studies of the year.
1902 p. 39 – Bargemen (whole page)
Ernest Marriage sends a decidedly good tonal study, Bargemen, which, it is high praise to say, suggests many of the characteristics of Percy Lewis’ work. The gradations are correctly adjusted, and there is no discordant note in the suggestion of the varying distances. This easy staging from one plane to another until the background is reached, provides a true atmospheric realisation. The alert figures of the bargemen are well done, and, although there is abundance of detail in the foreground, the eye is not held by any obtruding part. Altogether, the work is worthy of the high technical promise given in the problem study Morning last year.
1903 p 124 – The Towpath
Ernest Marriage’s Towing Path contains some such in the centre of vision, but his scheme of gradation is in such a subtle velvety descent that criticism is suspended. Nothing could be finer than the shimmering light on the pool, bounded by the willows and the dark trunks aforesaid
1904 p 80 – Miss B
Ernest Marriage never shrinks from tackling a difficult problem of light, and the portrait Miss B. is a bold attempt to give detailed modelling in shadow. The result is praiseworthy. Flesh and drapery show many subtle nuances of light and shade, and the only uncertainty displayed is in the rendering of the shoulder in the strong light.
1907 p 113 – The Decay of an Old House
Ernest Marriage deserves all credit for his attempt in The Decay of an Old House to combine architecture and man in one sentiment. It. is worth more than a casual glance.
1909 p 36 – Laon
Laon, under repair, the sort of thing that would repel most photographers, and anger the local view man, has afforded Ernest Marriage a theme of which he has taken full advantage, using the workmen’s tackle and rubbish to give interest to the foreground, and employing the resources of ” gum ” to bring the lighted lower part and the almost pitch-black cavern of the roof into something like harmony.
1910 p 66 – A Large Low Moon
That “Large Low Moon.”
Someone has ascertained that the object photographed was the sun. Also that Mr. Marriage used a telephoto lens (just as one might have expected), and further, that he enlarged the resulting negative by two diameters. Why not ? Will anybody be shocked if I admit that the first sight of the rough print of this subject reminded me of an opalescent medusa rising behind the waving seaweeds in a dark-backed aquarium? Or that the picture would have been just as enjoyable if the subject had been a jelly-fish behind seaweed, instead of Sol masquerading as Luna behind lichened branches ? To me the picture gives much enjoyment. The weird lines of the branches are interesting, the series of tones is most pleasant, and however often the picture is seen it never loses the illusion that the disc is swimming in space behind the boughs, and pressing upward.
1911 p76 – Requiescat in Pace
Requiescat in Pace is a piece of intimate observation on the part of Ernest Marriage. Few pictorialists, working in a great cathedral, find time to note the reposefulness of a monument, and to record it as is done in this case. The technical difficulties are obvious and considerable, but having once “seen” and desired to register the impression, the rest was relatively easy.