An itinerant portrait photographer at work on Clapham Common, c. 1877. The photographer is taking a portrait of a nanny and her charge. These were easy subjects as nannies were fond of taking home to their mistresses photographs of the babies entrusted to their care. The wheeled contraption next to the nanny is the photographer's portable darkroom used for developing the photograph on the spot. From a series of 37 photographs published in the book, 'Street Life in London' (1877), with text written by Thomson and the journalist Adolphe Smith.
