Sarah Hall Ladd (April 13, 1860 – March 30, 1927) was an early 20th-century American pictorial and landscape photographer.

Early life

Ladd was born Sarah L. Hall in

Somerville Somerville may refer to: *Somerville College, Oxford, a constituent college of the University of Oxford Places *Somerville, Victoria, Australia * Somerville, Western Australia, a suburb of Kalgoorlie, Australia * Somerville, New Zealand, a subur ...

, Massachusetts, the daughter of John Gill Hall and Sarah Cushing. Little is known about her childhood. On September 7, 1881, she married Charles E. Ladd, a West Coast businessman and son of early

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

(Oregon) mayor

William S. Ladd William Sargent Ladd (October 10, 1826 – January 6, 1893) was an American politician and businessman in Oregon. He twice served as Portland, Oregon's mayor in the 1850s. A native of Vermont, he was a prominent figure in the early developme ...

. She then moved to Portland with her new husband, and they soon settled into a very comfortable life with an elegant home overlooking the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward b ...

Career

It is not known how Ladd became interested in photography or if she received any formal training. She joined the Oregon Camera Club in September 1899, and by early 1901 a number of her works were exhibited in San Francisco. In 1902, leading New York photographer

Alfred Stieglitz Alfred Stieglitz (January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz was kno ...

formed the

Photo-Secession The Photo-Secession was an early 20th century movement that promoted photography as a fine art in general and photographic pictorialism in particular. A group of photographers, led by Alfred Stieglitz and F. Holland Day in the early 20th centur ...

, a group of American photographers who worked to promote photographic

pictorialism Pictorialism is an international style and aesthetic movement that dominated photography during the later 19th and early 20th centuries. There is no standard definition of the term, but in general it refers to a style in which the photographer ha ...

, and he listed Ladd as an Associate Member. It is not known how he became aware of her photography or if he had even seen her photographs, since most of those she was then taking did not accord with the pictorial tradition. In 1903, Ladd began taking extended trips on the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

on her friend and fellow photographer Lily White's custom-built houseboat, the ''Raysark'', which contained a darkroom. Some of her most famous photographs of the river were included in an exhibition in 2008 at the

Portland Art Museum The Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, United States, was founded in 1892, making it one of the oldest art museums on the West Coast and seventh oldest in the US. Upon completion of the most recent renovations, the Portland Art Museum becam ...

, "Wild Beauty: Photographs of the Columbia River Gorge, 1867-1957". Ladd had become a successful and highly regarded photographer by the early twentieth century, and many of her photographs were published in ''

The Pacific Monthly ''The Pacific Monthly'' was a magazine of politics, culture, literature, and opinion, published in Portland, Oregon, United States from 1898 to 1911, when it was purchased by Southern Pacific Railroad and merged with its magazine, '' Sunset''. ' ...

'' magazine (founded by her husband). After about 1904, Ladd's other responsibilities took time away from her photography. She assisted her husband when he became involved in the preparations for Portland's 1905

Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition The Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, commonly also known as the Lewis and Clark Exposition, and officially known as the Lewis and Clark Centennial and American Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair, was a worldwide exposition held in Portlan ...

. In 1910, the Ladds moved to

Carlton Carlton may refer to: People * Carlton (name), a list of those with the given name or surname * Carlton (singer), English soul singer Carlton McCarthy * Carlton, a pen name used by Joseph Caldwell (1773–1835), American educator, Presbyterian ...

, Oregon, after Charles became president of the Carlton Consolidated Lumber Company. In spite of these additional obligations, Ladd exhibited fourteen photographs at the 1915

Panama–Pacific International Exposition The Panama–Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California, United States, from February 20 to December 4, 1915. Its stated purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely se ...

in San Francisco. Ladd became prominent in the

Christian Science Christian Science is a set of beliefs and practices associated with members of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Adherents are commonly known as Christian Scientists or students of Christian Science, and the church is sometimes informally know ...

movement from 1911. After her husband died in 1920, she moved to

Carmel Carmel may refer to: * Carmel (biblical settlement), an ancient Israelite town in Judea * Mount Carmel, a coastal mountain range in Israel overlooking the Mediterranean Sea * Carmelites, a Roman Catholic mendicant religious order Carmel may also ...

, California, in late 1924 to join her long-time friend Lily White.

Death

Ladd died in Carmel on March 30, 1927.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ladd, Sarah 1860 births 1927 deaths Photographers from Oregon 20th-century American photographers Artists from Carmel-by-the-Sea, California People from Carlton, Oregon 20th-century American women photographers People from Somerville, Massachusetts Photographers from Massachusetts