One of his most famous works Water Rats was controversial and led to him being excommunicated by the local clergy.

Water Rats caused a little comment at the time as it featured naked children, but the image is not erotic. Sutcliffe was using the conventions of the academic nude to show how photography can approach art. He was, however, excommunicated by his local clergy for displaying it, as they thought it would ‘corrupt’ the opposite sex.

Copies of his work can be purchased from the Sutcliffe Gallery in Whitby which cites the following about his work:

All the sepia photographs you see on this website were taken in and around Whitby by Frank Meadow Sutcliffe (Hon. F.R.P.S.) between 1875 and 1910. His large camera was made of mahogany with brass fittings and took ‘whole plate’ glass negatives (6.5″x8.5″).
Photography in Victorian times was not an easy craft to master and people were often content to produce an acceptable image which was sharp and well exposed – but there were a handful of photographers who wanted to lift their pictures into the heady realms of ‘Art’.
Frank Meadow Sutcliffe was one of these artists! He became World famous as one of the greatest exponents of pictorial photography, winning over 60 gold, silver and bronze medals from exhibitions in Tokyo, Vienna, France and the U.S.A. as well as Great Britain.
He was made an honorary member of The Royal Photographic Society in 1935, the highest award attainable.

I am very fond of his work, probably because one of my ancestoral lines lived in the Whitby area.  The photographs give me the chance to see where my ancestors lived and worked bringing their world alive for me.  I have four Sutcliffe  photographs on my wall at home: