John Benjamin Stone

Sir John Benjamin Stone (9 February 1838 – 2 July 1914) was a British Conservative politician and photographer.

Amongst his published works were A Tour with Cook through Spain (1873), Children of Norway (1882), and a fairy tale called The Traveller's Joy.

He also made an invaluable record of the folk customs and traditions of the British Isles, which influenced later photographers of note, including Homer Sykes, Daniel Meadows, Anna Fox and Tony Ray-Jones.

[citation needed] The Benjamin Stone Photographic Collection housed in the Library of Birmingham contains many thousands of examples of his work.

His amateur career culminated in 1911 with his appointment as official photographer to the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary.

Stone's photography was juxtaposed to that of later Birmingham photographers in the 1993 exhibition From Negative Stereotype to Positive Image.