William Clarridge trained as a painter before taking up documentary photography in the early 1850s. Two albums of his photographs survive documenting the town of Berkhamsted. These form one of the earliest documentary records of English village life. Amongst his pictures are a number of photographs of young girls which were sold at Sotheby's in 1984 described as "in the style of Lewis Carroll". There is evidence that he may have visited Christ Church, Oxford in the mid-1850s where Lewis Carroll was professor of mathematics. 19th-century British painters British male painters 19th-century English photographers Year of birth missing Year of death missing Photographers from Hertfordshire 19th-century British male artists