Kate Pragnell

Kate Pragnell (24 February 1853 – 19 November 1905) was an English portrait photographer and business owner.

Early life Posthumous business card for Kate Pragnell's businessKate Pragnell was born on 24 February 1853 at High Street, Newport, Isle of Wight, England.

In 1862 her family moved to Bristol where she later studied at the Bristol School of Art.

Career

In 1890 she went into partnership with photographer William Friese-Greene at 162 Sloane Street, Chelsea, London.

In 1901, she moved to 39 Brompton Square, Kensington, where she also had a studio which she ran with her friend and partner Alice Stewart. Unlike Hughes, Pragnell also photographed men, something unusual at the time for a female photographer. Some of her subjects: Punch cartoonist Linley Sambourne; General Sir Beauvoir de Lisle; the wedding portrait of Mrs Lionel Portman on the cover of Country Life on 11 November 1905.

Her work appeared in Bystander, Black and White, Cassell's, and in the Hyman Collection, the private collection of Claire and James Hyman.