The delicious Harlequin

Abstract

The prim little girl in the century-old cabinet photograph ¹ Connie Giickrist. Original in the Pennsylvania State University Libraries. Purchased from D'Offay Couper Galleries, London, in 1971 is wearing her very best dress, and the bow fitted around her waist must have made it difficult to maintain a balance in a high wind. But she most certainly could have coped with the problem because rope-skipping was her particular talent, and she practised it as ‘the skipping girl’ on the stage of the Adelphi Theatre². Good looks and a few lengths of hemp made 11-year-old Constance MacDonald Gilchrist a London celebrity, and a personage who needed no introduction as late as 1898. She fascinated painters. Whistler was captivated enough to make two studies of her, retaining one of them, Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Gold Girl, Connie Gilchrist, until his death³. (It is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.) Lewis Carroll svho, strangely enough, shared Whistler's interest in the theatre, also had a more than casual interest in little girls, and a near-professional interest in photographing them. That this great man has been occasionally criticized for this penchant seems hardly fair, but his diaries often betray a man caught in the grip of two passions—for children, and for photography. The passages on Connie Gilchrist are as good as any for illustration.     

The Fox Talbot collection at the science museum

Abstract

The Fox Talbot Collection at the Science Museum, London, includes cameras and apparatus; approximately 6000 of the world's earliest photographs; plates, proofs, and glass positives relating to the photo glyphic engraving process; and an important selection of notes, letters, and documents. To deal adequately with a collection so extensive and significant is beyond the scope of this article, which must confine itself to an outline of how the collection was acquired, a consideration of the more important apparatus and its historical associations, and a discussion of the photographic images. The important documentary material can only be mentioned incidentally, and photo glyphic engravings cannot be dealt with at all. The title Fox Talbot Collection should be applied only to the material donated to the Science Museum by the Talbot family but since the end of the 19th century the museum has enjoyed continuous support from the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, which has generously lent material to the museum's photographic collection. This includes Talbot apparatus which is so intimately connected with the Fox Talbot collection that it seems unnecessarily pedantic to consider it separately.     

The partnership motive of D. O. Hill and Robert Adamson

Abstract

Over the past 100 years the motive behind the D. O. Hill and Robert Adamson partnership in photography has frequently been discussed, but has escaped systematic investigation. For this reason, the existence of a large body of thei1 work could not be explained. In this study, the question of partnership motive is examined from the perspective of three known documents: the article, ‘The Two Prints’, composed by Hugh Miller, editor of The Witness, and published on 24 June 1843;¹ the letter written nine days later by Sir David Brewster to Fox Talbot, on 3 July 1843;² and a second article, ‘The Calotype’, completed by Miller at about the time Brewster wrote the letter and printed ten days later, on 12 July 1843.³ From these documents it will be shown that on the eve of partnership the two men were planning to create various kinds of historic imagery for graphic arts application.     

Sun pictures: Printing Talbot's calotype negatives

Abstract

The inspiration for a major exhibition to commemorate the centenary of W. H. F. Talbot's death in 1877 arose from a number of projects in which the Kodak Museum had been involved. In September 1973, for the first programme in the BBC Television series ‘Pioneers of Photography’, the author visited Lacock Abbey to demonstrate Talbot's early photogenic drawing process. The sensitizing process used was based upon Talbot's own formulae, modified for use in a teaching programme prepared for the Kodak Education Service some years before¹. Thin paper, of the type used for making carbon copies of typewriting, of weight 45 grammes per square metre, was soaked in a solution of 50 grammes of sodium chloride in one litre of water until thoroughly wetted. The salted paper was dried, and sensitized when required by soaking in a solution of 100 grammes of silver nitrate in one litre of distilled water, to which 10 millilitres of glacial acetic acid had been added. About one minute was sufficient to convert the salt in the paper to silver chloride, and to give the necessary excess of silver nitrate to make a sensitive printing-out paper. When dried, the paper could be used to make prints by exposure to strong light under a leaf in a printing frame, yielding excellent prints in a few minutes in bright sunshine. Talbot stabilized his early pictures by treating them with a strong salt solution; to give greater permanence to the modern prints, they were fixed in conventional photographic fixing solutions. In the early summer of 1975, the same process was used to produce photogenic drawings both by contact and through the camera for display in the Fox Talbot Museum at Lacock, then under construction. During this work, some of Talbot's original calotype negatives were printed experimentally, while on loan from the Royal Photographic Society. Though not perfect, these modern calotype prints were sufficiently successful to suggest the possibility of an exhibition, to be prepared in honour of Talbot's centenary. It was intended that the display include a number of ‘salted paper’ prints from original negatives. It was felt that these would convey the special character of the calotype print far more effectively than would be possible with modern photographic materials.     

Bogawantalawa,the final resting place of Julia Margaret Cameron

Abstract

The tombstones of Julia Margaret Cameron and her husband in the picturesque graveyard of St. Mary's Church at Bogawantalawa¹ near Glencairn in Sri Lanka are reminders of the love the Camerons had for that country, ever since Mr C. H. Cameron toured the island in his capacity as Reforms Commissioner, during his service in India. After their later years in England (1846–1875), the Camerons decided ‘to spend the last years of their lives in Ceylon and even brought their coffins with them’². They did so in 1875, and bought a large acreage of land upcountry, which is even today known as ‘Cameronwatte’³. Mrs Cameron died on 26th January 1879⁴. She was born in India on 11th June 1815⁵, the third daughter of James Pattie of the Bengal Civil Service. Mr Charles Hay Cameron was a Member of the Law Commission in India in 1838, and this is how they came to meet.     

Elizabeth Buehrmann: American pictorialist

Abstract

It has been estimated that by 1900 more than 3500 American women worked as professional photographers,¹ and by ‘1911 there were 1600 American women managing their own portrait studios’.² One early twentieth-century photographer who deserves greater recognition is Elizabeth (‘Bessie’) Buehrmann (c. 1886-c. 1963).³ Although she stated that she came from the South,⁴ the exact date and place of her birth is unknown. Chicago, however, is the city where she spent her teens, and it was there that she developed and studied. When she was just a girl of 20, numerous articles marvelling at her talent and youth, and illustrated with her photographs, appeared in Chicago newspapers.⁵ She had already established, by that tender age, a reputation as a gifted artistic or pictorialist photographer who specialized in portraiture.⁶     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Anastas Jovanović, The first Serbian photographer

Abstract

Anastas Jovanovi? was one of the first photographers in the world, and a contemporary of Talbot. He was educated in the arts, and exceptionally productive as a photographic enthusiast and professional, and a great many of his works having survived. It is all the more regrettable that Jovanovi? has remained virtually unknown to this day, except for mention in a few Yugoslav publication^1–10 and a rare article or reference abroad^11–14. In an attempt to remedy this situation, an exhibition was held at the Gallery of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (August–October 1977), in Belgrade. It was the cultural event of the year, and a comprehensive catalogue of 420 pages was issued on that occasion.     

‘A dream of fair ladies’ Mrs Cameron disguised

Abstract

It is a disconcerting pleasure to meet old friends in unexpected settings. Mrs Cameron, whose name will be forever linked with Freshwater and Farringford on the Isle of Wight, spent her youth and early married life in India, returning home only in 1848. So it came about that she happened to be standing on the banks of the River Hooghly at Calcutta in the autumn of 1847, when the steamer carrying a young girl fresh from England let down its anchor. Miss Emily Metcalfe noted with maddening discretion in her journal.     

Underdog or bulldog: introducing biogas technologies in Estonia

The production and use of biogas, along with corresponding sector-specific activities and technologies, is a relatively new subject in Estonia. This paper gives an instructive overview of main barriers behind the development incentives, policy support and technological innovation in terms of emerging market for biogas. The article examines the complexity of market-related, political, technological and social obstacles for introduction biogas technologies. There is a major gap between resource potential, technological capacity and practice in Estonia. About 2?% of the theoretical potential of biogas is being used, totalling around 11?million?Nm³, based primarily on landfill biogas. First, political setting for biogas innovation is still vague, however, consolidated and enhanced since 2010 to compete with other renewables and mainstream energy technologies. The article underlines the statement that the reason why Estonian biogas production has not followed the path of growth and technology transfer is the low renewable electricity feed-in tariff. However, there are many other legal and engineering factors that have held back biogas applications and sector development in general. Stakeholders have established the Estonian Biogas Association, increasing sector’s visibility, targeted lobby to support policy-making, technological and social innovation and professional networking. Though getting the biogas sector to succeed demands a comprehensive approach and involvement of more actors in demand side including local leaders and consumers, both enthusiasm and scepticism should be informed by a sound understanding of framework conditions and complexities for path-breaking transformations in energy systems. To promote biogas production, profitable and technologically feasible showcases should demonstrate benefits and issues to the target group and stakeholders. Instead agricultural and CHP development mode, the priority of using biogas in Estonia could be seen as green vehicle fuel for transport.     

Talbot's Rouen window

Abstract

On 16 May 1843, William Henry Fox Talbot, stopping in Rouen en route to Paris to try to market his calotype process, set up his camera in front of the muslin-curtained window of his room in the Hôtel de l'Angleterre (figure 1).¹ Huddled deep in the darkened bedroom, he focused not on the masts of sailing vessels docked outside on the quai du Havre or the new suspension bridge that he was to record in other images, but on the plane of the window itself, with its mullions, balcony grating, curtain rods, and filigree of lace. Knowing full well that the faintly lit walls of his room would be grossly underexposed ifhe tried to capture anything of the bright outside world, Talbot persisted with this enigmatic composition, neither landscape nor still life, study of nature nor genre scene, at best a ‘picturesque imagining’ as he would later describe in The Pencil of Nature.     

The darkroom abolish

Abstract

‘You press tlie button and we do the rest' had been Kodak's proud slogan slnce 1888, but as the success of popular pliotography grew, the wisdom of allowing hundreds of thousands of amateurs to do ‘the rest’ themselves became very clear. By 1902, the annuals sales of photographic paper alone had reached three million dollars¹, and Kodak's famous propaganda slogan was tacltly disowned with the publication of The Darkroom Abolished. In eloquent terms, and supported by the highest photographic authorities in the land, the notion came to be propagated that ‘You’ should not only press the button, but also ‘do tlie rest’ yourself. If ‘The Kodak Girl’ could do it, fragile and delicate woman that she was, anyone could. No mention here of the fact that at least 18 women were formal members of the Photo-secession in that year, or that two had been among the founders. The early years of this century were not, of course, attuned to these sensibilities; indeed, plctures of pretty girls selling enticing products like potassium ferrous oxalate to an eager publoc will be with us for a while yet. In the testimonials for the new products, Eickemeyer ranks discreetly above (or at any rate ‘before’) Stieglitz, and through the four quotations are almost on a par, one may guess that the layout of the brochure was more popular in some quarters than in others. And Edward W. Newcoinb, while equally positive, was evidently confused about the limits of human skill. Frederick Remington's endorsement must have been valued more for the sake of the artist's name than for its own persuasive qualities. His cautious tone notwithstanding, it is known that his own practice as an illustrator was shaped, at least in part, by the public's insistence on the kind of pictorial authenticity that only a pliotograph could sulpply².     

Book reviews

Abstract

A joint exhibition of Ansel Adams's Museum Set portfolio of seventy-five images plus one hundred photographs selected from his centennial project for the University of California, Fiat Lux, was due to open at the University of California, Irvine, on 8 January 1991. The installation of The Museum Set photographs was near completion when museum scientist and installation designer, Phyllis Lutjeans, noticed that Sequoia Gigantea Roots, Yosemite National Park, California, c.1950 (figures 1 and 2), plate number 55 in the exhibition catalogue,¹ was reversed, from the image hanging on the wall before her. Ms Lutjeans had been using the catalogue as a guide to affix labels for the exhibition.     

Recognition of photographic processes

Abstract

Although Diane Arbus was not an overtly political photographer, her concern with human appearances as defmed by sex, age, and social roles deserves re-examination for it focuses on the visual identity of women in our society. The monograph Diane Arbus, the only extant major book on her noncommercial work, is a fair if numerically limited assessment of her scope, and in the main, accurately reflects the visual world she recorded in her contact sheets.¹ This world is not an even-handed one, for it is disproportionately and stereotypically female through its depiction of women, transvestites, vulnerable men and a generally private leisure society where subjects display a frontal and emotional gaze and identify themselves through clothing and gesture.     

‘Princess’ Alice

Abstract

Burr Mcintosh had an enviable job as a photographer; at the turn of the century, he was called the ‘special photographer … to [a popular] Theodore Roosevelt’¹. With such credentials, Mcintosh accompanied William Howard Taft's Republican peace entourage to the Philippines and to China in 1905, bathing in the knowledge that his calling and appointment were secure. He was obviously smitten by ‘the Princess’, Alice Roosevelt, Teddy's headstrong daughter, and took every opportunity to photograph her with the other politicos on the junket. Alice mentions these events m her autobiography, Crowded Hours     

Mathew Brady at gettysburg

Abstract

Mathew Brady and his team of cameramen are thought to have arrived on the battlefield at Gettysburg sometime after 6th July 1863, and to have taken a series of about 30 views on or about 15th July¹. Of these, 11 were published in the form of wood engravmgs for Harper's Weekly, on 22nd August 1863.     

Your loving auntie & God mama,Julia Cameron

Abstract

Written almost immediately upon her return from her 10 years in India, and probably at her temporary residence, Ephrahim Common, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, this note is a typical example of Mrs Cameron's effusive, loving style. The letter dates from a time 15 years before Julia Margaret touched a camera, and it is to her niece Julia PrinsepJackson, who was then only two years old. She was a god-daughter to Mrs Cameron, and later her most frequent model. Indeed, Julia Jackson (1846–1895) became one of the most beautiful of 19th-century women. Her first husband, Herbert Duckworth, died in 1870, and eight years later she married Sir Leslie Stephen, editor of the Dictionary of National Biography. Two of her children became famous: Vanessa Bell as a painter, Virginia Woolf as a writer. Julia eventually wrote the DNB entry (from ‘personal knowledge’) of her eccentric aunt, who was renowned for her taste in shawls, her generosity in giving them as presents, and for fixing the images of certain 19th-century great men for all time. The ‘two Hardinges’ refers at least in part to Julia Margaret's son Hardinge Hay Cameron, godson of Lord Hardinge, the recently-retired Governor-General of India