John Collier,Jr

Abstract

After sending off a portfolio of his pictures to the headquarters of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in Washington, DC, John Collier, Jr, became so preoccupied with just trying to survive in photography that he forgot about his submission. As weeks turned into months, he bounced from one photography job to another. Collier felt that he had hit rock bottom in 1941 working as a printer for Gabriel Milan's, ‘a very cut-throat photography company in San Francisco’. Then one day his labour in the laboratory was interrupted by a telephone call from Washington. ‘I was called out of my little dungeon where I was tinting goldtoned baby portraits and picked up the phone and couldn't hear what the man said, having a life-long hearing difficulty’. Collier handed the receiver over to the nearest person, who happened to be his boss, to relay the message. ‘There's a crazy guy in Washington, DC, who wants to pay you $2,300 a year. You'd better take it because I'm going to fire you’. A shocked and elated Collier took the receiver, and confirmed his acceptance with a simple ‘Yes’. Although Collier did not hear anything that Roy Stryker, Head of the Historic Section, said in reply, he immediately prepared to leave for the nation's capital, and became what turned out to be the last photographer hired for the greatest documentary project the world has ever known. ‘This was the climax of the concern that I had to do something about direct analysis and observation, about what was going on around me at the time of the Great Depression’. ¹     

Edward Linley Sambourne (1844–1910)

Abstract

Edward Linley Sam bourne worked as a Punch cartoonist from 1867 until his death in 1910.¹ Beginning his 43-year association with the magazine as a freelance contributor he then joined the permanent staff in 1871 as Cartoon Junior (to Tenniel who was Cartoonist-in-Chief). His rise through the Punch ranks meant a commensurate increase in his workload and, because of this, he took up photography in the early 1880s to assist his productivity and to satisfy his demand for accuracy. Sometimes Sam bourne copied the entire photograph, occasionally he even traced it; or else he used elements of a photograph or several photographs to construct the picture for the final drawing. Gradually, Sam bourne the Cartoonist became Sambourne the Photographer as his interest in drawing was supplanted by a fascination with photography; he developed an enthusiasm for the medium in an amateur way, joining the Camera Club in April 1893 and slowly amassing an enormous archive comprising some 30,000 images. To follow Sambourne's development as a photographer involves looking at how and why he used photography, and what his private as well as his public attitude was towards the medium.     

Photo-muebles

Abstract

Antoine François Claudet, F.R.S. (1797–1867) was a cultured French emigré who became an important member of the London scientific establishment in the mid 19th century. Despite some competition, his leading role as a practitioner in photography was widely recognized and, while he does not share the Olympian heights with Daguerre and Talbot, the appreciation of his contemporaries has stood the test of time¹.     

Nevil Story˜Maskelyne, 1823–1911

Abstract

Nevil Story-Maskelyne is not a man whose name readily comes to mind as a pioneer experimenter in photography, but he should not be ignored. As a young man of 22 in 1845, he revealed to Fox Talbot his devotion to photography and became a lifelong friend. During the Patent trial, Talbot v. Laroche—1855, he took a firm line of support, opposing the general opinions of the Council of the Photographic Society, a courageous attitude for one so young. In a letter to Talbot, he said at the time: ‘No man in my belief can take from you this that you first showed, that Iodide of Silver formed in the moist way [i.e., from solutions] was capable of being made acceptable of a latent effort under the influence of light, which in subsequent treatment with substances capable of a sort of reducing (dioxidying) [sic] action, was capable of developing into a visible effect. This I believe to be yours and on it, it seems to me your point rests securely’1 Letter LA54-60 (26th November 1854), Lacock Abbey Collection. . He went on to comment on those who had seen fit to claim the invention as their own, and said that they were men ‘most deeply indebted to you for their living at all’. Maskelyne was gifted, kind, generous, devoted to his family, and a highly intelligent scientist.     

Bonfils & Son,Egypt, Greece and the Levant; 1867–1894

Abstract

Félix Bonfils was born in Saint Hippolyte du Fort, France, on 6th March 1831. Little is known of his early life. Family sources indicate he began his professional career by operating his own printing press¹. On becoming interested in photography, he produced photographs using the heliogravure process invented by Niépce. In due course, he adopted the collodion wet-plate process, with all its well-known complications and encumbrances. For the landscape photographer lie was to become, the task of moving his equipment from place to place must have been formidable, especially in countries where roads and transport were meagre.     

Eduard Steichen and Maurice Maeterlinck

Abstract

Eduard Steichen (1879-1973) met the Belgian Symbolist writer Maurice Maeterlinck in 1901, when Steichen was in Europe. Steichen's goal there was to photograph painters and writers whom he personally admired,¹ including Maeterlinck whom Steichen photographed in 1901. Maeterlinck attended Steichen's first one-man exhibition at Maison des Artistes in 1902 and looked favourably on the young artist's work. Maeterlinck and Steichen discussed photography at the time. Steichen thought that Maeterlinck's comments were ‘more considered than any [he] had heard before’ and ‘wondered whether he would put down some of his thoughts’² to be included with reproductions of Steichen's photographs in Camera Work. Steichen felt emphatically that his best photographs should be reproduced with Maeterlinck's statement, and he told Alfred Stieglitz as much.³ The connection between Maeterlinck and Steichen has not gone unnoticed     

Samuel Bourne of Nottingham

Abstract

Samuel Bourne was one of the great pioneers of travel photography, and the photographs which he took in India during the 1860s have become familiar to a wide audience through their inclusion in exhibitions, their use as book illustrations and also through television coverage. Although acknowledging the merit of that aspect of his work, this paper discusses the hitherto comparatively little-known role which he played in the arena of photography during the period immediately before he went to India, and also his activities in the latter part of the 19th and early 20th centuries.     

The late work of Charles Marville

Abstract

Compared with other photographers of his generation, the career of Charles Marville was remarkably long. His first calotypes date from no later than 1851, and some may have been produced earlier than that. Although biographical details about his life are sketchy at best, it is likely that Marvillc continued to work in the medium of wet-plate collodion almost until his death, which is believed to have occurred in 1879.1 The year of Marvillc's death has never been determined precisely. It generally has been assumed that the sale of his studio and equipment, which took place in 1879, followed shortly after his demise. Henri Lc Sccq, who was two years younger than Marvillc, produced no new work after the mid-1850s. Gustave Lc Gray, Charles Ncgre and Edouard Baldus, all of whom were four years his junior, ceased active photography in the 1860s. Of the first generation of French photographers working in the calotype or daguerreotype processes, only Hippolyte Bayard, who was 14 years older than Marville, had a longer active career. Marville produced a large body of calotypes, many of which were published by Blanquart-Evrard, that first revealed what became a lifelong passion for architectural photography.² However, it was only after Marville took up the wet plate in the 1850s that he settled into a full-time career as an architectural photographer.     

Gilbert Radoux: An early photographic publisher

Abstract

The printing industry has always been a leading-edge application of photography¹. It is no coincidence that the desire to improve on traditional graphic processes was the stimulus which fuelled the researches of both Niepce and Talbot. Since its invention, photography has been used as an information bearer in most domains of human activity. As Talbot recognized when he set up his Talbotype Printing Establishment in Russell Terrace, Reading, in late 1843 or early 1844, printing was a promising industrial sector for the exploitation of photography. He was also forced to realize, when he shut down the operation some three years later, that photographic publishing was perhaps an idea whose time had yet to come.² The necessary preconditions for ensuring commercial success - minimum viability in the form oflow unit costs, mass-produced prints of marketable quality and evidence of a real demand for the finished product - had still to be met.     

Henry van der Weyde (1839–1924)

Abstract

My great-great-grandfather Henry van der Weyde (figure 1) was a fascinating individual with a variety of talents. He was an artist, society photographer and inventor. He can be regarded as one of the fathers of electric-light photography because, in 1877, he was the first person to use a dynamo to produce electric-arc light to illuminate his studio. This was a revolution in the evolution of photography. He also invented and developed photographic techniques in lenses, lighting, printing and vignetting. He filed 81 patent applications, which were not all in the field of photography.     

Benjamin Franklin Pease

Abstract

Benjamin Franklin Pcasc (1822–88) was not the only North American to practise photography in Peru but he was the first to establish a permanent residence, and his biography incorporates many elements conlmon to that generation of expatriate who made the portrait studio an international institution. He alone, among the many daguerreotypists who were active in Lima, survived the transition from daguerrean rooms to large corporate salons which distinguished the rise of thc cartede- visite. The importance of his production to the history of photography in Peru is verified by contemporary accounts and by thc numerous daguerreotypes and paper prints which survive from his studio.     

A scene in a library

Abstract

This essay concerns one photograph: the eighth plate in The Pencil of Nature, called A Scene in a Library, which originally appeared in the second installment of Talbot's inaugural book on photography (figure 1). I have already written extensively about A Scene in a Library — and given its title to a book on illustrated books.¹ But it is a photograph that, together with the text that accompanies it, has never ceased to intrigue me. I continue to wonder what Talbot's intentions were when he chose this photograph for his book. Why did he choose it over similar photographs that he had made and could possibly just as well have used? Why did he title it the way he did — A Scene in a Library — when we know that it was not actually taken in his library? Why and when did it occur to him to write the piece of text that accompanies the plate — which speaks of experimentation with the invisible end of the light spectrum? And what did he have in mind when he put the plate, the caption and the accompanying text together? For A Scene in a Library is remarkable — and exceptional — for the unaccountable way in which it puts text together with image. Almost all the other plates have text that bears on them fairly straightforwardly, either explaining how and where they were made or indicating possible uses for the photograph in question. Not so A Scene in a Library, which functions, rather, as a kind of clef de roman, and which has, as I hope to show, an emblematic status in The Pencil of Nature precisely because it is an exception.     

Edward Steichen

Abstract

‘The camera’, Steichen wrote in 1947, ‘serves as an instrument for waging war and as an historian in recording the war’.¹ He spoke from experience. By this time, as a veteran of both world wars, he was reflecting upon a long life devoted to photography as art, as an advertising medium, as social commentary, and as war documentation. Although Steichen often used his camera as a very effective propaganda device in wartime, his hatred of war motivated him to use the same instrument to persuade people that war would never provide a lasting solution to human problems.²     

Oliver Wendell Holmes as an amateur photographer

Abstract

On 6th July 1862, Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote a letter to Coleman Sellers, thanking him for some photographs received and excusing his own negligence in writing. His eldest son, missing in action in Richmond, commanded all his attention, but then Holmes added: ‘If it were not for this war, I should begin getting photographic apparatus tomorrow. If peace ever returns I feel sure I shall try my hand at the art and then I shall be only too happy to send you some of my handiwork in return for the many favors I have received from you’¹. The letter catches Holmes at an interesting point in his life. Always intrigued by photography and well known among his friends as a popularizer of it, he was finally thinking of turning theory into practice.     

Horatio Ross presentation album

Abstract

Horatio Ross (1801–1886)¹ was an aristocrat whose enthusiasm for photography was second only to his passion for nature, Scottish culture and sport. Born at Rossie Castle, Forfarshire, on 5 September, 1801, Ross was named in honour of his godfather, Lord Horatio Nelson, Napoleon's boldest foe, and an intimate friend of his father. At the age of 18, he joined that gallant regiment, His Majesty's 14th Light Dragoons from which he retired in 1826 with the rank of Captain. Ross served as a Member of Parliament with integrity and honour between May 1831 and December 1834, representing the boroughs of Aberdeen and Montrose, and played a prominent role in debates concerning agriculture and game laws. In December 1834, Ross married Justine Henrietta, whose father was chief of the MacRae clan of Ross-shire. Their happy union of more than 50 years produced five sons: Horatio Stefenberg John, Hercules, Colin, Edward (Ned), and Robert Peel.     

The Album of Camille Silvy

Abstract

Camille Silvy (1834-1910), an elusive figure in the history of photography, was very successful in the brief 11 years that he produced photographs. He has been primarily known for his beautifully toned cartes-de-visite, in addition to larger images, most prominently River Scene, France. Recently, much attention has been given to this Silvy masterpiece, which has been the subject of a book and an exhibition.¹ The book, intensively researched by Mark Haworth-Booth, sheds considerable light on Silvy's life and career. One of the items that Haworth-Booth uncovered was an album or scrapbook that belonged to Silvy and now belongs to Silvy's descendants in Paris. This album served as a scrapbook or memory book and provides clues and insights into Silvy's life. It reflects his inspirations and early training, his interests, his professional accomplishments, events in his life, and his lifelong interest in documentation.     

19th century indian photographers in India

Abstract

It may never be possible to discover who was the first person to use a camera in India. Dr A. Toussaint considers it likely that the Frenchman, Jules Léger, may have taken photographs during his visit to India before establishing a photographic studio in Mauritius in February 1845¹. Josiah Rowe, a Calcutta surveyor, was hailed as ‘the father of photography in India’ by Dr F. J. Mouat, the first president of the Bengal Photographic Society, but as yet no photographs have been found that can be attributed to him. The earliest known photographs were taken by John McCosh, a surgeon in the Bengal establishment of the East India Company's army, during the second Sikh War in 1848-49. He had no doubts about the pleasures of photography:

I would strongly recommend every assistant-surgeon to make himself master of photography in all its branches, on paper, on plate glass, and on metallic plate. I have practised it for many years, and know of no extra-professional pursuit that will repay him for all the expense and trouble (and both are very considerable) than this fascinating study².     

Os 30 Valérios

Abstract

Valério Vieira (1862–1941) was born in Angra dos Reis in Rio de Janeiro. As a young man he went to the capital where he enrolled in the Escola de Belas Artes (School of Fine Arts) without his parents' approval. It appears that he began his photographic activities in the 1880s in several cities of the Vale do Paraíba and in Ouro Preto, an old town in the State of Minas Gerais. Around 1888, he married Carmen Augusta Villas-Boas Teixeira, and in 1892 he came to São Paulo, where he installed his studio at No. 19, Rua da Imperatriz, now the XV de Novembro street.     

William Carrick: A Scots photographer in St Petersburg (1827˜1878)

Abstract

William Carrick, whose name now appears in the Bolshaya Sovietskaya Encyclopaedia as one of the founders of Russian photography, was born of Scottish parents in Edinburgh, on 31st December 1827. A few months later he was taken to Russia, which was to be his home for the rest of his life. His grandfather and father were timber merchants, and ran their business from Cronstadt, the port for St. Petersburg.     

The photographic experiments of Henry Brougham

Abstract

Of all the British claimants to the invention of photography, Henry Brougham is the one whose experiments have been given least attention in existing histories of photography. In his posthumously published three-volume autobiography of 1871, The Life and Times of Henry, Lord Brougham, written by himself, Brougham claimed to have engaged in some ‘experiments upon light and colours’ during the years 1794-–5 (when he was 16 years of age). He had, he tells us, included a discussion of his experiments in a paper offered to the Royal Society in 1795. Most of this paper, his first in the field of natural philosophy, was published in the Society's Philosophical Transactions (No. 86) of 1796 under the title ‘Experiments and observations on the inflection, reflection, and colours of light’. The paper, as published, was an attempt to discover analogous relationships between the bending of light within bodies (refraction or, using the 18th-century term, ‘refrangibility’) and the bending of light outside of bodies (reflection and diffraction or, in Brougham's terminology, flexion). As he wrote in the opening lines of his paper:

It has always appeared wonderful to me, since nature seems to delight in those close analogies which enable her to preserve simplicity and even uniformity in variety, that there should be no dispositions in the parts of light, with respect to inflection and reflection, analogous or similar to their different refrangibility. In order to ascertain the existence of such properties, I began a course of experiments and observations, a short account of which forms the substance of this paper.¹