James Knight

James Knight was a photographer documented as active in 1853, placing his known output within the early period of widespread photographic practice. Although limited details regarding his life are available, his institutional credibility is established by the presence of his work in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Knight’s documented surviving portfolio includes fifteen photographic works preserved in museum collections. These images reflect the typical concerns of mid-nineteenth-century photography, spanning landscape, architecture, and portraiture. Notable works include the scenic studies A Peep in Leigh Woods and Caswell Bay with Proldie Point, the architectural documentation A Very Pretty House, and the formal portrait Biaritz; SIr Baldwin Leighton, Miss M. Leighton, Miss Leighton.

The concentration of these images in a major collection confirms the historic and museum-quality significance of Knight’s surviving output. As a figure of the early photographic era, James Knight prints are often preserved and made available to researchers today, with some public domain sources offering high-quality prints for study.