Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) wasn't just the author of the Alice books. He was also a pioneering photographer -- considered by many to be the first great photographer of children. So research on his photographic work will have many audiences: historians of photography, students of Victorian life, or students of Dodgson.

But because Dodgson was such a great photographer, there have been many collections of his photographs. Those I have seen include this one, Douglas R. Nickel, Dreaming in Pictures; Roger Taylor and Edward Wakeling, Lewis Carroll, Photographer; and the pioneering work by Helmut Gernsheim, Lewis Carroll, Photographer.

All of these have some defects -- Gernsheim is the oldest, so some important Dodgson references (including his complete diaries) were not available. Taylor's photos are printed on a very small scale, and drawn from a restricted set of sources. Nickel is limited in both scope and documentation. But there is no question: This is the weakest of the lot. It's just a collection of photographs, without context. There is an introduction, but no almost information on the photos. Not even an index -- if you want to see all the photos of, say, Xie Kitchen (Dodgson's favorite model in his middle years) or Alice Liddell, you have to flip through the whole thing.

If you just want a bunch of photos of long-dead people (mostly girls, mostly as children), this might do the job. As an art book, perhaps it's acceptable. As history -- forget it. ( )