Lallie Charles

Lallie Charles (née Charlotte Elizabeth Martin) (1869–1919), was an Irish photographer. Along with her sister Rita Martin, was the most commercially successful women portraitists of the early 20th century.
Lallie Charles was born in Ireland. In about 1895 she married London photographer Georges Garet-Charles, whom she divorced around 1902. She was a society photographer. In 1896 she opened her first studio, called "The Nook", at 1 Titchfield Road, Regent's Park, London. In 1897 Rita Martin, her sister, went to work with her In 1906 Martin opened her own studio at 27 Baker Street and the two sisters became competitors.
Charles was inspired by Alice Hughes; other pioneer women photographers of her time, other than her sister, are: Christina Broom, Kate Pragnell and Lizzie Caswall Smith. Mme Yevonde was an apprentice of Charles, and Cecil Beaton, as a young man, posed for a family portrait, an experience he later described in his book "Photobiography". Talking about the sisters, Beaton said: "Rita Martin and her sister, Lallie Charles, the rival photographer, posed their sitters in a soft conservatory-looking light, making all hair deliriously fashionable to be photo-lowered". Charles was secondly married to Herbert Carr, and died in Mayfair, London, on 5 April 1919.
A small selection of negatives by Lallie Charles and Rita Martin are preserved at the National Portrait Gallery donated by their niece Lallie Charles Cowell in 1994.