Lafayette Ltd.

Lafayette was a commercial photographic company. It was founded in Dublin in 1880 by James Stack Lauder, who used the professional name of James Lafayette. The firm was known as 'Jacques Lafayette', 'J. Lafayette' and 'Lafayette'. Lafayette's three brothers also worked for the firm. In 1884 Lafayette was elected a member of the Photographic Society of Great Britain. By 1885 the firm had attracted the attention of the British Royal family and, in 1887, James Lafayette was invited to Windsor to photograph Queen Victoria. He was granted a Royal Warrant as 'Her Majesty's Photographer in Dublin'.

In the 1890s Lafayette established studios in Glasgow (1890), Manchester (1892) and London (1897) and Belfast (1900). The company flourished and many of the firm's photographs were published in newspapers and magazines such as the 'Illustrated London News', 'The Gentlewoman', 'Country Life' and the 'Scots Pictorial'. From 1914 to 1927, the company even had a special office in Fleet Street to deal with press work.

James Lafayette died in Bruges in 1923. The company suffered during the 1930s but continued to function until 1952. The business was finally wound up in 1962 (Lafayette Photography 200?, pp.1-3).

Sources: Lafayette Photography (200?), 'Lafayette Photography - History' [Internet]. Dublin: Lafayette Photography. Available from:

http://www.lafayette.ie/html/history.htm [Accessed 21 January 2004

"Lafayette." Royal Commenwealth Society Photographers Index. Retrieved July 16, 2019 from http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/rcs_photographers/entry.php?id=287. NC

James Lafayette was the pseudonym of James Stack Lauder (1853-1923).[1] He was a late Victorian and Edwardian portrait photographer, and managing director from 1898 to 1923 of a company in Dublin specializing in society photographs, Lafayette Ltd.[1] In 1887, he became the first Irish photographer to be granted a royal warrant.[2]

"James Lafayette." Wikipedia. Retrieved July 16, 2019 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lafayette. NC