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129:, to a middle-class family. After a period of studying art she married Arthur Hewitt, a photographer. As his assistant, she was trained in principles of photography involving processing and printing. She started her career in photography as a small operation in St. Louis, where she lived and learned from the camera clubs and photography journals which were flourishing during the late 19th century. She was also influenced by an article on photography by Frances Benjamin Johnston, published in the Ladies Home Journal. Her photographs initially were of landscapes, her home surroundings including chickens in the barnyard, the cat and the dog.
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201:. One of Hewitt's letters to Johnston said "I wonder why I expect you to understand me better than most people – is it because I love you so?" Based on these letters the author of the biography, asserts that the exchanges were "unswervingly lesbian... hardly straight forward". However, some scholars opine that such romantic exchange of letters was not unusual among the woman of the 19th century and consider them as not sensual. But many others feel that such writings are a "clue to a greater, if submerged, lesbian subculture".
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studio, Hewitt functioned in the studio as the darkroom assistant. She was at this stage dependent on
Johnston as her mentor. However, their partnership broke up in 1917, for reasons unknown. Hewitt developed her own professional skill in home and garden photography, and operated independently. By this time, she had a good clientele to pursue business on her own. With her office in New York City, she became a freelance photographer and executed many assignments by taking pictures of mansions and gardens of rich people of the
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Hewitt then divorced her husband, Arthur Hewitt, in 1909, and moved to New York to work and live with
Johnston. After her divorce, she was dependent on photography as a profession for her living and pursued it with dedication, and had said "it is the most fascinating of arts". Her photographic career
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After the partnership with
Johnston broke up in 1917, Hewitt began to work solo and became famous in her own right as a commercial photographer. She set up her business in photography with a specific focus on taking pictures for designers, architects, and landscape architects, recording interior and
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Hewitt's correspondence with
Johnston, which was mostly one sided, was quite sensuous with declaration of her love for Johnston. Some of her letters to Johnston are part of the book titled "The Woman behind the Lens: The Life and Work of Frances Benjamin Johnston" (1864–1952) by Bettina Berch which
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which was published in
Southampton Times in 1912 and again in 1916 which brought her professional skill to limelight. In all the photographs she took, carrying heavy wooden cameras and wooden tripods, for clients she also took additional pictures which she offered to newspapers and magazines for
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Though she shifted to New York in 1909, it was only in 1913 that she established a photography firm, in partnership with
Johnston, titled the "Johnston-Hewitt Studio" in New York, with a specialty in architectural and garden photography. While Johnston held the primary task of shooting for the
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Johnston made a profound influence not only on Hewitt's photographic career but also on her personal life for several years. She then became a fan of
Johnston and started writing letters to her seeking her help professionally and personally. Hewitt sought her advice on several matters including
110:, which functioned from 1913 till 1917. They became well known in the field of architectural and landscape photography and took many pictures of famous buildings and gardens, which were titled "Miss Johnston and Mrs. Hewitt" or "Frances Benjamin Johnston and Mattie Edwards Hewitt."
256:, Hewitt was "one of the best known and most lyrical garden photographers of her day." Hewitt took photographs documenting the estate for the Paris Exhibition of 1930. These photographs have been said to "glimmer with drops of light reflecting from shiny-leaved willows".
153:, the French photographers and scientists, in his newly opened East Coast office in New York. She sought Johnston's advice for creating a dark room in her house, which however was built by her husband; this dark room made with walls fixed with
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A catalog of Hewitt's work, titled "Portrait of an Era in
Landscape Architecture: The Photographs of Mattie Edwards Hewitt", is available as an exhibit at the Wave Hill, Bronx, New York.
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publication as part of an article. She also maintained a good record of negatives with names of clients, architects, and location. She had also taken photographs for buildings of
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had also associated with her on some of the assignments. Many of these pictures were published in newspapers and magazines, along with articles on the mansions in the
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building paper had enough shelves and space for two people to work freely. From this dark room of her husband's studio she printed photographs taken by
Johnston.
102:(October 1869 – 1956) was an American photographer of architecture, landscape, and design, primarily based on the East Coast. Initially she was associated with
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was a "transition from an amateur in the 19th century to 20th century professional", when there was substantial innovation in photographic equipment.
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563:"BOOKS: Frances Benjamin Johnston: A brilliantly seductive new biography asks: was one of America's greatest photographers a lesbian?"
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exterior views of home and business houses, and gardens. She continued in the profession until her death in Boston in 1956.
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Photo shows Mattie
Edwards Hewitt, three-quarter length portrait, standing, facing front, right arm on chest of drawers.
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also contain "epistolary exchanges of lady-love" letters of the then many other famous women such as between
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who had recommended her work to others. In the words of Robin S. Karson, author of the book titled
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Fletcher Steele, landscape architect: an account of the gardenmaker's life, 1885–1971
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Fletcher Steele, Landscape Architect: An Account of the Gardenmaker's Life, 1885–1971
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423:"The Love Letters of Pioneering Victorian Photojournalist Fannie Benjamin Johnston"
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297:"Guide to the Mattie E. Hewitt & Richard A. Smith Photograph Collection"
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In 1910, Hewitt had taken photographs of the Albert Boardman Estate in
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The Positive Image: Women Photographers in Turn-of-the-Century America
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324:"Manuscript Group:380 Mattie Edwards Hewitt Photographs (1925–1945)"
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Location photography of architecture, landscape, and designs.
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Rybczynski, Witold; Olin, Laurie; Brooke, Steven (2007).
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275:Rybczynski, Olin & Brooke 2007
212:Photograph taken by Hewitt at the
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498:Fleming, Nancy (March 1, 2013).
501:Money, Manure & Maintenance
561:Lemon, Brendan (August 2000).
136:in 1901 to participate in the
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540:Karson, Robin S. (May 1989).
326:. Pennsylvania State Archives
299:. New York Historical Society
620:American women photographers
62:1956 (aged 86–87)
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104:Frances Benjamin Johnston
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519:Gover, C. Jane (1988).
240:, and Garden Magazine.
187:Edna St. Vincent Millay
138:Pan-American Exposition
615:Artists from St. Louis
250:Carrère & Hastings
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226:Richard Averill Smith
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191:Edith Wynne Matthison
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100:Mattie Edwards Hewitt
68:, Massachusetts, U.S.
25:Mattie Edwards Hewitt
16:American photographer
546:. Abrams/Sagapress.
232:, the Evening Post,
132:During her visit to
425:. Brainpickings.org
175:Vita Sackville-West
127:St. Louis, Missouri
569:. Here Publishing.
238:House & Garden
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587:978-0-8122-3951-5
553:978-0-8109-1523-7
532:978-0-88706-533-0
511:978-0-9643003-9-2
504:. Nancy Fleming.
214:Beechwood mansion
179:Eleanor Roosevelt
142:Buffalo, New York
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77:Photographer
47:October 1869
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610:1956 deaths
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483:Karson 1989
245:Southampton
599:Categories
456:Gover 1988
444:Lemon 2000
381:Gover 1988
369:Gover 1988
352:Gover 1988
260:References
222:East Coast
155:terracotta
74:Occupation
121:Biography
85:1909–1956
51:St. Louis
140:held in
134:New York
429:May 11,
407:May 11,
330:May 11,
303:May 11,
151:Lumière
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66:Boston
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197:and
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59:Died
40:Born
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