1861 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC NEWS
Vol. V
ver: June 5, 2007
START:
NOTES:
--Italics have been retained from publications, which use them for both titles as well as emphasis. To more easily locate image titles, I have continued this italicization when titles have been rendered in all capitols or put in quotes, however italics have NOT been used when the general subject of an image is mentioned.
--Image numbers listed in articles can be either an entry number in an exhibition, or the photographer’s own image number as found on labels.
--All names have been bolded for easy location. Numbers frequently refer to the photographer’s image number, but can also refer to a number in a catalog for a show. Decide whether to bold or not if can tell.
--It is not always possible in lists of photographers to know when two separate photographers are partners or not, e.g., in a list, “Smith and Jones” sometimes alludes to two separate photographers and sometimes to one photographic company. Both names will be highlighted and indexed but a partnership may be wrongly assumed. Any information to the contrary would be appreciated.
-- Brackets [ ] are used to indicate supplied comments by the transcriber; parenthesis
( ) are used in the original sources. If the original source has used brackets, they have been transcribed as parenthesis to avoid confusion.
--“illus” means that I have the view mentioned and should be scanned and included.
--Articles by photographers about technical matters – only name and titles have been listed. If other names are associated with the paper they are listed as well.
--Meetings of Societies – Names of officers, members attending or referenced, dates and locations of meetings have been given. If the reports are very short or discuss photographs, then the articles have been copied; if administrative or technical in nature, they have not.
-- Some journals, e.g., The Art-Journal, cover both photographer and painting/drawing. As they frequently refer to the production of both the photographer and the painter as “pictures” it is not always possible to tell when photography is indicated. If there is doubt, it will be included but a note will be added stating that the names listed may in fact not be photographers.
--Mostly articles totally discussing technical aspects of photography, products, etc. are not transcribed unless they are part of a larger article covering photographs. When technical descriptions are too lengthy to transcribe that is noted.
--Cultural sensitivity – these are direct transcriptions of texts written in the 19th-century and reflect social comments being made at that time. Allowances must be made when reading some texts, particularly those dealing with other cultures.
1861: P News, Jan. 4, vol. V, #122, p. 12:
Talk In The Studio. [selection]
THE PROPOSED INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION FOR 1862.—This may now be regarded as a positively coming event. Most of the eminent manufacturers of the Continent are preparing for it, and those of our own manufacturing districts feel that they cannot afford to neglect the opportunity. Some 670 names are now on the guarantee list, at the head of which stands that of the Prince Consort for £10,000. The site is fixed on the estate of H.M.’s Commissioners of 1851, at South Kensington.
SIGNING THE TREATY OF PEACE AT PEKIN.[sic]—A photograph of this scene was secured by Signor Beato, the mandarins very willingly remaining still for the purpose. The great quantity of red and dark purple in the decorations of the species of shed under which the affair took place, and in the costumes of the Chinese must have been disadvantageous.
ROCK INSCRIPTIONS.—Mr. Bentley announces a new work called “Sinai Photographed.” The rock inscriptions which are supposed to have been executed by the Israelites who came out of Egypt.
1861: P News, Jan. 4, vol. V, #122, p. 12:
To Correspondents:
J.G.L. – Members are elected in the London Photographic Society by ballot. You must be proposed by one member who knows you, and seconded by another. The entrance fee is one guinea, and the annual subscription one guinea. The annual meeting is in February. You will receive every particular on writing to the secretary. [Letter continues on technical matters]
1861: P News, Jan. 11, vol. V, #123, p. 17-18:
Lunar Photography. By Samuel Fry* [*Read at the meeting of The London Photographic Society, on Tuesday, Jan. 8, 1861; cont. on p. 31]
Photography, as generally understood, seems so inseparably connected with the light of day, that it appears at first glance anomalous to speak of taking pictures at night without artificial light; but one moment’s consideration points to the true state of the case; though to us it be “dark as Erebus,” to the lunarians, if such there be, inhabiting that portion of the moon’s surface which is turned towards us, it may be broad sunshine, sunrise, or sunset, according to the moon’s age and position. If, therefore, we choose a time for our operations in which we are favoured by the same atmospheric conditions required for producing good terrestrial pictures, we have many probabilities in our favour of obtaining good photographs of the moon. It has been matter of surprise with many that lunar negatives display a much larger variety of tone, and gradation of shading than the eye can detect on the surface with a telescope, but photographers will easily understand that this is of necessity the case, as whilst large tracts of the moon’s surface north-west of Tycho, and also south of that centre, are of a silvery whiteness, other parts to the east and south-east of the lunar surface, present varying hues of yellow and green, each shade having its actinic value, and being accurately impressed on the photographic medium. And this variation in colour is a very happy circumstance for us, as, if the pure silvery tone of the upper portion extended over the entire disc, how flat and chalky would the pictures be.
The darker portions of the moon’s surface are generally known as seas, but the appellation appears to be a gratuitous one, as beyond the supposition which some have entertained that the colours before alluded to were caused by sands and other deposits, constituting dry oceanic beds, there appears no other cause for thus denominating what are evidently now dry arid tracts.
My attention was first called to the photography of the moon at the commencement of 1857, by having placed at my disposal the very fine equatorial telescope of Charles Howell, Esq., at Brighton, which had then just been erected in a suitable observatory on the beach, about a mile from the town. I determined to commence operations at once, and with that object fitted up a little laboratory in another room of the observatory, adjoining the instrument room. I found a difficulty at starting arising from the circumstance of the extreme cold of the place, greatly reducing the photographic power of the chemicals, and it was thenceforth needful to keep the bath and developer in a dwelling-house for warmth. I then commenced experimenting for the purpose of discovering the exact actinic focus of the telescope, for as the object glass of 8 ½ inches diameter, and 11 feet focus was not corrected for the chemical rays, it was necessary at starting to discover the point of sharpest possible focus. I had made a mahogany board, 12 inches long and 4 wide, with a screw extending the entire length, and so arranged, that by turning a thumb screw at one end, an upright plate-holder at right angles with the board could be moved in either direction. I also made a graduated scale of degrees along the board divided into 1/100 of an inch; the eye piece of the instrument being removed, this simple camera was by means of an adjusting collar fastened to the end of the telescope, by the thumb-screw at the end. I obtained a remarkably sharp image at the visual focus, about 8 ½ inches from the aperture of the telescope, and I began by taking a picture at this point, which, of course, from the non-correction was quite out of focus, but was preserved for comparison; I then began by removing the prepared plate 1/10 of an inch back from the visual focus, and soon found my pictures showed evidence that I was approaching the true focus. I ultimately found that the average sharpest focus was at 0·75 inches beyond the visual, but I found constantly a slight, as it were, oscillation of focus within, and beyond this point, caused primarily, no doubt, by the varying distance of the moon from the earth, and also to a certain extent by the condition of our atmosphere. M. Claudet was one evening with me at the observatory, and stated on being informed of this circumstance, that he considered it a striking corroboration of a theory he had advanced at an earlier stage of photography. I always found it necessary on commencing operations to make one or more trial pictures, to discover the very sharpest possible focus, and on more than one occasion, when the moon was in a place peculiarly suited for delineation, great loss of time arose from overclouding, and other unfavourable conditions of atmosphere. For this reason a reflecting telescope is greatly to be preferred to a refractor, as by a reflector the focus may be obtained as in an ordinary camera from the coincidence of the foci.
I now come to the mechanical arrangement necessary for driving the telescope to follow the moon’s apparent path, For [sic] as even under the most advantageous circumstances an exposure of a few seconds is necessary to secure a good negative, it is indispensable to annul the rapid lunar motion by most accurate smooth running machinery. This was done by a powerful clockwork, regulated, as Mr. De la Rue describes his also to be, by a conical double beat pendulum, acting on the same principle as the governor of a steam engine. This was easily set to go at any given speed by a dial, and degrees marked thereon, and a few experiments enabled me to set it at any given time to exactly follow the moon; though at first it was rather difficult to discover whether want of sharpness arose from incorrectness of focal position, or want of adjustment of the clock-movement, the mistiness being much the same from each, but the latter fault gives also a rather oblong appearance to the image. With regard to the chemical part of my arrangements, I find it of primary importance to employ the very best chemicals, and the highest possible state of cleanliness; perfect freedom from floating particles in the bath, collodion, or developer, and all three so suited to one another, as to work uniformly together. I prefer positive collodion, as being more limpid, and thus pouring better, also from its usually containing both an iodide and bromide, in its composition; it does not deteriorate in sensitiveness to any extent, which enables one to keep it in a body in tall bottles and allow every particle to settle down to the bottom, and thus draw from the upper portion a quantity absolutely free from all inclination to produce spots, or comets. The bath I prefer of 40 grains to the oz., made of pure crystals; and if at all acid, I reduce it by saturation with the oxide of silver, and add, testing carefully meanwhile, drop by drop, a weak solution of nitric acid.
I believe this is the way to obtain a bath capable of producing the very highest results for any branch of photography. The developers I use are sometimes pyrogallic, 3 grains to the oz., and at other times iron of 10 grains, and 1 grain of acetate of soda. Under very favourable circumstances I use the former, as giving at one operation a vigorous well-defined negative, but where I have to contend with yellowness of the atmosphere and its concomitant photogenic drawbacks, I use the iron solution and intensify afterwards with pryogallic and citric acid. In using iron it is absolutely necessary to hit upon exactly the right time of exposure, as a second too much or too little I find sufficient to mar the picture to a much greater extent than when pryogallic is used. The extreme difficulty of obtaining good lunar negatives would scarcely be credited without actual experiment; the disturbing causes are so numerous, and apparently so trivial, and yet, so often fatal; a strong breeze in the upper regions of the atmosphere when almost calm below; night vapours and mistiness arising after a warm sunny-day; or, when all the preparations are made, and the photographer at his post, perhaps at midnight, or often much later, cloudiness may set in, and completely upset every chance of getting pictures. In so variable a climate as ours, the opportunities of obtaining really fine lunar negatives are like “angels’ visits, few and far between.” (To be continued.)
1861: P News, Jan. 18, vol. V, #124, p. 25-26:
The Photographic Exhibition.
The annual Exhibition in connection with the Photographic Society is naturally regarded as the epitomized and embodied record of the year’s photographic progress; of its scientific discoveries, its practical improvements and its advance in art-culture. What men of science or practice have proposed, what societies have discussed, and what journals have suggested, recorded, examined, and criticized, we here hope to find in practical results, and, in a very literal sense, “teaching by example.”
The eighth annual Exhibition, which was opened for a private view on Saturday the 12th, and to the public on Monday, at the Gallery of Water Colours in Pall Mall, whilst it meets this view very fully in some respects, is scarcely a satisfactory exponent of the year’s progress as a whole. Our first impression, after a general inspection on Saturday, was one of almost unalloyed pleasure. We were so agreeably surprised at the general excellence of the exhibited pictures, after a season in every way so unfavourable for the production of good results; we were so well pleased with the material qualities—excellent processes, excellent manipulation, excellent lenses—the existence of which so many of the pictures proves; and above all we were so delighted with decided art-progress so abundantly manifested, that we willingly echoed the general remark, “What an excellent exhibition!” It is only on a second and more reflective examination that the absence is felt of much that is necessary to a complete embodiment of the year’s results. There is absolutely scarcely one important novelty exhibited; nor are there specimens of progress of many important branches of the art. There is no specimen of photo-lithography or photo-zincography, although two or three distinct processes have been brought to a very high state of perfection during the year. There is no specimen of carbon printing. There is no specimen of M. Joubert’s process of photographic enamelling. There is no specimen of Mr. Sutton’s panoramic photography. There is scarcely a specimen to mention of celestial photography notwithstanding the amount of interest attaching to it, in connection with the eclipse of last July. There is scarcely any example—none specified of the productions of the solar camera. The only novelty of importance is the process of block-printing by Herr Pretsch, of which some promising prints, and the blocks from which they are produced, are exhibited. There are also some specimens exhibited by M. Claudet of photographic portraits in “enamel colours, burnt in by the process of M. Lafon de Carmassac.” What part photography plays in the production of these we are not informed; they are exquisite enamel paintings, but by no means examples of photographic veracity, if the portrait of Her Majesty the Queen be regarded as a fair specimen. With the two exceptions we have quoted, there is no novelty whatever; no evidence of the extension of the powers or applications of photography to fresh branches of science, art, or commerce; the whole of the six hundred and twenty-two frames exhibited containing specimens—for the most part very good specimens—of the ordinary and well known processes of photography.
The result of an analysis of these six hundred and twenty-two specimens is somewhat singular. Of the total number not less than five hundred and fifty-two are by the wet collodion process; twenty-eight by the collodio-albumen process, of these twenty-eight, seventeen are by Mr. Mudd; twenty by the metagelatine process, eighteen of these being by Mr. Maxwell Lyte; eight by the Fothergill process; nine by the waxed paper process, of which eight are by the Rev. T. M. Raven; two are by the malt process; two by the honey process; and one by the oxymel process. Whilst the wet process claims such a pre-eminence in the number of its representatives, we can by no means accord to it the same position as to excellence; the number of specimens being borne in mind, dry collodion takes much the foremost rank. It is a somewhat invidious task to award the palm of highest merit where there are a dozen of unexceptionable artists; but deciding by the specimens now exhibited, we should give decided priority to the works of Maxwell Lyte, James Mudd, and Francis Bedford; or to Mudd, Bedford, and Lyte; or to Bedford, Lyte, and Mudd, for the same three are equal. The specimens of these gentlemen represent three distinct processes, the wet collodion worked by Mr. Bedford, the collodio-albumen process worked by Mr. Mudd, and the metagelatine process worked by Mr. Lyte. Nothing could be a more satisfactory verification of the idea so frequently enunciated in these pages, that it is not so much in processes, as in the cultivation of artistic taste and manipulatory skill that excellence depends. The pictures of each of these processes, abound in everything, constituting good pictures; the most perfect photography guided by thoroughly artistic feeling. We might mention a host of others whose productions are scarcely inferior: Fenton, Robinson, Bisson Freres, Wilson, Wardley, Bourne, Cundall and Downes, Heath, Campbell, Dovizielli, Fry, Gillis, Piper, and others.
The general impression the Exhibition conveys is, that it is a very full one; and although containing so many pictures of equal merit, that it is on the whole as very well hung as the limited size of the room will permit. Those pictures possessing manifest pre-eminence in merit have generally the best positions, and we have not noticed, hitherto, any picture especially deserving examination that is hung beyond the reach of such scrutiny.
Amongst the most noticeable pictures, especially as to size, are some immense pictures by P. Dovizielli; one of the Coliseum at Rome, (30), is especially fine, and a very perfect vigorous photograph: it possesses, alas!—for we must always express our feeling on this subject—a white-paper sky. St. Peter’s Rome, (52), is a similar picture with scarcely as much merit.
One of the next features that strikes us is the increase in the number of reproductions, especially from paintings. We must confess to a considerable pleasure in this fact, as we regard this as capable of becoming a still more important branch of photography, and think it worthy of every effort to overcome the varying photogenic action of colour, so as to secure perfect results in this direction. Where this can be done, reproductions, giving the exact touch and drawing of the master, must, as we have before observed, possess a value and an interest impossible to attain by any other means. Amongst those excelling in this department, Messrs. Cundall and Downes occupy a foremost place in this Exhibition, followed by Ponting, J. Hogarth, jun., Dovizielli, Caldesi, Hering, and others.
In the centre of the wall at the top of the room—by common consent regarded as the place of honour—is hung Mr. Robinson’s “Holiday in the Woods.” We congratulate Mr. Robinson on several points in connection with this picture: in the first place that he has printed it so well. We remarked in our recent criticism on the composition that we were sure Mr. Robinson could produce a better picture from the same negatives: in the print now exhibited, he has certainly done so, and the result is almost faultless; rich and harmonious in tone; at once atmospheric and vigorous; artistic and natural in grouping, fine in chiaroscuro, it stands prominent amongst surrounding pictures, as full of life and sunshine. Its effect is much enhanced b y the excellent taste of the mount and frame. We congratulate Mr. Robinson on the real excellence and on the general effect, and especially on the high appreciation it has received both from the general public and connoisseurs. We have but one fault to find: the price—twenty-two shillings—is altogether inadequate; it is worth two or three times the money, and we should scarcely conceive that it can be remuneratively produced for less. The Top of the Hill, (465), by Mr. Robinson, is also a very fine picture.
Mr. Mudd exhibits a number of such charming pictures, so well selected from such lovely spots, so carefully manipulated, and withal pervaded by so much real artistic feeling, that it is difficult to individualize and say this or that is best. There are two, however, that especially rivet our attention each time we approach: the first, “On the Greta, Robely Park,” (103) is full of poetry; we never tire of looking at it, and although not a large picture, we are much disposed to regard it as the gem of the Exhibition. The second, scarcely inferior, is entitled, “In Teesdale,” (183). Mr. Mudd’s landscapes throughout, apart from the excellent photography, are characterised by a delicacy of treatment and fine artistic feeling, rarely equaled.
Mr. Fenton is a large contributor, and amongst his contributions are some wonderful studies of still life, which for admirable grouping, delicacy, softness, and truth, have never been equaled. A contemporary has remarked, “How delighted Lance would be with these!” We have heard it whispered—and we repeat the whisper in no derogation to the photographer—that Lance had really grouped some of the studies. Be that as it may, they are worthy of him, and well worthy of the fame Mr. Fenton already possesses as an artist-photographer. The delicate bloom on the magnificent fruit, the graceful blending of the exquisite flowers, the crisp carving of the ivory casket, are altogether inimitable. In the resolute determination to avoid the common sin of such subjects—hardness, there is, perhaps, in some of these a slight tendency to a uniform looseness of tone and want of vigour [see Jan. 25, p. 39 Errata], especially where the sparkling high lights of cut glass are rendered by flat tints of grey; but we may mention one, “A study of fruit, &c.,” (150), that is quite free from this fault or any other: it is full of delicacy and softness, combined with brilliancy; and the grouping is, we think, absolutely perfect. In landscape, Mr. Fenton is scarcely to felicitous as usual; and this fault of monotony, heaviness, and want of vigour, is, in some specimens, painfully apparent. They are valuable, however, as illustrations of the power the photographer may really possess in this direction, which is not a common one to err in.
Mr. Wilson has contributed some of his charming instantaneous effects, small in size, as gems often are, but exceedingly beautiful.
Mr. Bedford’s pictures, of which there is a goodly number, are all fully equal to his own standard, and that is saying much; some indeed surpass what we have before seen.
Mr. Maxwell Lyte’s pictures are the finest we have seen him exhibit; in one especial characteristic we think they take the lead of the exhibition: we refer to breadth and richness of chiaroscuro.
Mr. Fry has some good pictures of which, perhaps, the best is St. Nicholas Church, Brighton (92). This is a large picture, 16 by 12, we think, very brilliant, vigourous, and perfect as a photograph. The introduction of natural clouds from a separate negative—the legitimacy of which, is at the present moment a moot question—is here managed with excellent effect and contributes to the harmony of the picture.
A very charming picture, the auld Brig o’Doon (433), which Burns has rendered immortal in his Tam O’Shanter, is exhibited by Mr. David Campbell.
In portraiture the Exhibition is not one whit in advance of previous years; we should scarcely err in saying it was not up to the former mark. Some of the best portraitists have, for some reason or other, abstained from exhibiting this year; and some who do exhibit have made no advance whatever, whilst the art has progressed. Maull and Polyblank exhibit several portraits which are as good as those of some years ago, and no better. Mr. Wright, who writes himself “artist and photographer,” exhibits some portraits which prove he has much to learn in both branches of his profession. Messrs. Caldesi and Co. exhibit a very charming portrait of a lady (447) which, despite some faults in the background accessories, possesses many qualities worthy of attention. Mr. Hering has a frame of portraits of children, exquisite in pose, expression, and general delicacy of treatment.
Mr. Claudet has some very fine coloured pictures; amongst them an enlarged portrait of Lord Macaulay, coloured in oil which excites much attention. This picture possesses sufficient that is excellent to make us regret exceedingly that it is as a whole a failure. It is in the first place enlarged to a size just below that of life; which is, therefore, suggestive of boyhood; and the colouring, although fleshy and natural in hue, has so far destroyed all the strong lines and characteristic markings of the face, as to add very materially to the boyish effect of the size; whilst the grey hair has a singularly incongruous effect in conjunction with the general aspect of juvenility.
There is a large display of cartes des visite, as it has become the fashion to call these Lilliputian portraits. (Are they really ever used as such?) Many of them are very good; perhaps those exhibited by the London Stereoscopic Company are the finest; the mounting of these latter are deserving of especial praise.
We have already more than exhausted our space in giving some brief hints of our first impressions. In future articles we shall return to the subject in more detail and regular order.
We miss from the catalogue many of the old names which used to grace it, amongst whom we may mention Rejlander, Rosling, Lake Price, Grundy, Llewellyn, White, Williams, Delamotte, Frith, and others; and we miss, also, some of the processes which at one time were represented: but in no other Exhibition do we remember such a prevalence of real pictorial excellence, so few white skies, and so little “soot and whitewash.”
1861: P News, Jan. 18, vol. V, #124, p. 26:
Exhibition of the Architectural Photographic Association.
The Exhibition of photographs of architectural subjects in connection with this association was opened in Conduit-street, on the evening of Tuesday, the 15th instant. As a while the Exhibition is superior to that of any former year, and displays a greater number of fine interiors than were perhaps ever exhibited. We find the familiar names of Bisson, Fenton, Bedford, Mudd, Dellamore and Bullock, and others, and we are glad to add especially Mr. Frith, who puts in no appearance at the Society’s Exhibition. There are some exquisite interiors of Canterbury Cathedral by Mr. Austin, a gentleman whose name we do not remember before to have met with, but who possesses especial excellence in this branch of the art. We shall notice the Exhibition in detail in a future number.
1861: P News, Jan. 18 vol. V, #124, p. 31-32:
Lunar Photography. By Samuel Fry* [*Read at the meeting of The London Photographic Society, on Tuesday, Jan. 8, 1861; cont. from p. 18]
The variation in size of the lunar negatives is much greater than would be supposed at first, but is of course owing to the moon’s varying distance from the earth. I have here one plate of glass for comparison, a negative of the full moon taken at the period of perigee, or its nearest approach to the earth, and also one taken at apogee, its greatest distance. You will observe that the difference is very considerable, and in the after process of enlarging, where a stereoscopic combination is desired, the qualities of the two negatives are very different also, from the details of one being much more condensed than in the other, the enlargements will also differ to some small extent when brought up to the same size.
The principle of binocular vision is now well understood, and though the means taken are very different, yet the principles involved in taking a stereoscopic combination of the moon is precisely the same as employed in our binocular cameras for ordinary pictures. Though the moon is by far the nearest to us of any celestial body, yet such is her enormous distance, that even if simultaneous pictures could be taken of the satellite, with telescopes placed at the extreme diameter of the earth, 8,000 miles, the stereoscopic effect would be very slight; the method adopted is therefore to take advantage of the librations of the moon, and by obtaining pictures at different epochs, to afterwards unite them in the stereoscope. The libratory motion of the moon amounts in the maximum to 1/9th, or rather more of the whole apparent lunar surface, but the period of time occupied in travelling from one extreme to the other is frequently very considerable, from the change of position being both in latitude and longitude a still longer period must elapse. By this I would imply that the distance of time if often considerable at which it is necessary to take pictures for a stereo combination, in order to have them at the same age of the moon, the average time occupied in travelling from one extreme of libration to the other is not more than 14 days; so that if we take, for example, 6 lunations, and a given age of the moon, say 60 hours after full, it will be found frequently that for several consecutive months the variation is so slight as to give no stereoscopic effect.
The most successful combination I succeeded in making was one in which the first negative was taken on November 23, 1858, and the other side of the combination on October 11, 1859, being an interval of nearly 11 months, and which, as may be seen in the stereoscope on the table, is sufficient to give powerful relief. I think it a point of great importance to display clearly in lunar photographs the details of the surface, as well as the general effect to be good. I have here the original negative of the right-hand picture of this combination, and it will be seen that the display of volcanic craters, mountain ranges, and even in many instances the interior cones of eruption are very striking. The period chosen for this picture is about 60 hours past the full, a time in my opinion very admirably suited to obtain good images, and when the solar light falls on the moon with sufficient obliquity to produce strong effect of light and shade, at the same time that it is almost, if not quite the nearest to full moon at which may be reproduced at the gibbous edge, those exquisitely sharp cusps and volcanic craters. The time of exposure required to produce a good picture is of course different, according to circumstances, and the age of the moon, perhaps an average exposure at full, was about 3”. I have succeeded in taking a very fine negative in a single second, but under very favourable circumstances.
I have here a negative of the crescent moon, 4 days old, which required 45” to be successful, and even then, but little detail is seen; the half moon required about 12” on an average. I have invariably found that when the actinic power was highest I obtained the best pictures, as it is then there is least chance of any difference in speed between the telescope and the satellite.
I also exhibit here a series of negatives, of the eclipse of the moon in February last; on the left-hand picture, the penumbra may be clearly seen, just commencing, and on each of the others, further advanced till the last, beyond which I was unable to obtain any result, in consequence of the reddish copper-colour of the moon, which appeared to leave after this point, no photogenic action. The enlargement of the moon, which is before you, together with the print from the original negative, is from a negative taken on the evening of the eclipse before it commenced, and shows more of the moon, surface than at ordinary full moon, on account of the moon, earth, and sun, being at that time so nearly in a line, and thus allowing us to see very nearly the entire illuminated circle. However accurate, and however unremitting may be personal observation of the lunar surface, it must in many important respects yield to the photographic representation, by which any disturbance thereon cannot fail to be brought under our observation, and a series of pictures extending over a length of years, must of necessity be of the utmost value for future comparison.
The enlargement, and subsequent uniting, stereoscopically of lunar pictures, is one of the most tedious and difficult operations the photographer can encounter; it is very unlikely that the two negatives are quite the same size, and still less likely that they have exactly similar photographic value, and yet, to be perfect, they must be made to intimately correspond in size and colour. My own practice, as being shortest ultimately, is to enlarge in the first place each negative separately, to about 1 ¾ inch, thus making a transmitted positive; these are again enlarged to 2 inches diameter, giving this time a negative, and the operation must be repeated until these two negatives have equal ph[o]tographic value. They are then mounted stereoscopically on a stereoscopic plate, and fixed in front of an enlarging camera, in a slide made in such a manner that either image may at pleasure be drawn opposite the axis of a lens, placed midway between the negative and the ground glass.
Each side of the moon is copied separately on a piece of glass, and the transparent positives, thus obtained, are afterwards cut with a diamond to fit a mount, having a circular opening for each side; they are then bound in the same way as book-covers, and are complete; but the utmost care is necessary in mounting the two halves to obtain true sphericity in the stereoscope, as the slightest aberration causes apparent flattening of one part of the moon, and excessive convexity in another.
1861: P News, Jan. 18, vol. V, #124, p. 36:
Talk In The Studio. [selection]
PHOTOGRPAHY AND HISTORY. One of the most interesting of all our historical records, the celebrated Tapestry of Bayeux has been reproduced by photography. The photographs, executed by Herr Albert of Munich are just published by Messrs. Bell and Daldy.
THE FRENCH EMPEROR ANDPHOTOGRAPHY.—His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of the French has forwarded to Mr. Maxwell Lyte a magnificent pin, mounted with diamonds and rubies, in recognition of an album of his marvelous views of the Pyernnees [sic] which he had forwarded to the Emperor. The gift was accompanied by some very flattering remarks, to the effect that the more he saw of the beautiful photographs of Mr. Lyte, the more he admired them, and that his congratulations and thanks were addressed, not only to the photographer of works of rare merit, but to a chemist whose discoveries his Majesty knew how to appreciate.
PHOTOGRAPHY AND FLUORESCENCE.—At a recent monthly meeting of the members of the Royal Institution, Professor Faraday exhibited photographs of fluorescent substances, which had been prepared by Dr. J. H. Gladstone. He reminded the members present of experiments they had seen in that theatre, showing that such bodies as di-sulphate of quinine emit a beautiful blueish light when they are exposed to the most refrangible of the chemical rays of the spectrum, and are also phosphorescent. Several of these are white or colourless to look at, under ordinary circumstances; but it had occurred to Dr. Gladstone that, on account of their lowering the refrangibility of the chemical rays, they would, perhaps, not produce so great a photographic effect as other white substances. He had, therefore, drawn various devices in quinine salt, esculine from horse-chesnut bark, and other fluorescent substances on white paper, and had had the apparently white sheet photographed. The devices all came our dark, as was seen by the specimens exhibited, and, more than that, on a sheet of paper coloured blue with cobalt, were fixed letters, cut out of white, and steeped in the fluorescent solutions above mentioned. When this sheet was photographed, the blue paper was bound to have a much greater chemical effect than the white letters, which, therefore, appeared in the positive photograph dark, on a light ground.
1861: P News, Jan. 25, vol. V, #125, p. 37:
The Exhibition of Architectural Photographic Association.
The Exhibition of the Architectural Photographic Association is this year incomparably the best yet held under its auspices, and is decidedly better in relation to its scope, than that in connection with the Photographic Society, regarded as an exhibition of the general powers of the art. Many of the pictures here exhibited leave absolutely nothing to desire in connection with the perfect rendering of architectural subjects. How far it is true that the depicting of architectural subjects is the most legitimate métier of the photographer, as some hold, we will not say;’ but this, we think, will, by most persons competent to judge, bye readily admitted, that higher perfection has been attained in this branch of photography than in any other.
Taking incomparably the first rank here, we think, are the productions of Francis Bedford. And, before proceeding further, we must enter our indignant protest against an opinion we have heard more than once expressed, and which we find declared in a very matter-of-course way in one of the morning papers, namely, that the productions of English photographers are vastly inferior to those of their continental compeers, the French and Italian photographers, and that the works of Bisson show “signs of greater judgment and artistic feeling than can be perceived in the works of our best men.” We most emphatically demur to this opinion: recognising heartily all the merits of the continental artists; especially admiring the magnificent photographs sent by Bisson to this Exhibition, which certainly possess the perfection of literal or mechanical photography; we nevertheless unhesitatingly express our conviction that in all points, except size, they are equaled by the pictures of many English photographers, and that in the exhibition of artistic feeling, they are entirely surpassed by the pictures of Francis Bedford,
Architectural pictures may appear, and to a certain extent are, difficult subjects in which to display much artistic feeling. The most perfect literal transcript of the building, with every detail made out, presenting indeed in all respects photographic perfection, would appear necessarily to constitute the best architectural picture; and this may to a certain extent be true. But there is in many of Bedford’s photographs here exhibited, such a display of fine taste and feeling in the selection of view, and still more especially in the choice of light and circumstances, as give to his productions a high pictorial value as works of art, entirely beyond their merit as architectural studies. Amongst the pictures of Bristol Cathedral, No. 229, “Entrance to the Chapter House;” No. 231, “the North Aisle;” and No. 228, “The Archway to College Green,” are especially worthy of attention. Amongst the views of Wells Cathedral are some especial gems, amongst which No. 251, “The West Front;” Nos. 253 and 254, “The North Porch;” No. 256, “The South Aisle,” and some others in the same series will excite admiration. Some of the most exquisite things, exhibited by Mr. Bedford, are the photographs from the interior of St. Paul’s of the fine carvings of Grinlin Gibbons: these will repay the most careful examination. Some views of the Cathedral at Canterbury, and the Rivaulx Abbey, are also very fine.
Perhaps the largest exhibitor, in every sense of the word, both as to number and demensions [sic] of his productions, is M. Bison, who contributes not less than sixty-five specimens, the majority of which are of very large size, and, a we have before said, of undoubted excellence. “The Entrance to the Imperial Library of the Louvre,” No. 5, is a magnificent specimen of photography, as are the various views of Rheims and Rouen Cathedrals. Notwithstanding the large size of many of these, which are not less, we imagine, than twenty-four inches square, they are free from distortion, and exhibit perfect definition to the corners of the plates. Taken in full sunlight, they are brilliant and vigourous, whilst there is not the smallest patch of light without detail, nor of black shadow without drawing. The shadows indeed are exquisitely transparent, the eye being carried by tender gradations into their deepest gloom. There is moreover a relief and a vigour combined with the utmost microscopic delicacy of detail, rarely met with, which give to these specimens of the best period of Gothic architecture—we are especially referring to the Rouen pictures—an especial value to the connoisseur. Almost all Bisson’s pictures present very excellent photography, but there are some in which the distortion produced by the lens, or the misuse of it, is very offensive. No. 53, “The Great Clock, S. Ouen Cathedral,” is a glaring example of what, using a solecism, has been called, “converging perpendiculars.” We are somewhat surprised to find that Bisson, whose very large pictures are so perfect in every respect, should exhibit a number of moderate-sized ones so strikingly faulty.
M. Legrey exhibits a few fine and large specimens of Notre Dame, which will receive much attention. No. 79 is a very noticeable picture, not only as an excellent photograph, but from the extraordinarily grotesque character of its subject, which forms part of a carving of the last judgment, in the old Parisian Cathedral.
Messrs. Cundall and Downes have a goodly show of specimens here, many of which are exceedingly happy. The series of Winchester Cathedral please us best, and present some magnificent photography. Mr. Dallmeyer’s triplet lens has rendered a good account of itself here, giving absolute freedom from distortion under the most trying circumstances. We must not omit to notice an exquisite little vignette, No. 103, “A View of St. Paul’s from the River.” The usual explanation is given for vignetting this picture, that the outside was imperfect. We would very much rather believe it was the result of deliberate intention, for it is a case where the sacrifice of part of the negative has produced a real picture, which the full introduction of details might have marred.
Mr. Fenton exhibits a large number of specimens, many of which are very fine, although there is more or less a tendency to the fault of which we have before spoken. “The North Porch, Southwell Abbey,” No. 221, is an excellent picture, as is also 224, “Harewood House, from the Parterre.”
We have not space here to notice the exquisite Egyptian photographs of Frith, nor the pictures of Moens, Captain Austen, Church, Mudd, Dolamore and Bullock, and others; but must return to them on another occasion.
An interesting feature in connection with this Exhibition is the delivery of lectures, every Tuesday evening, on subjects connected with the various photographs exhibited. The first lecture, delivered last Tuesday evening, was on the Egyptian photographs, by Joseph Bonomi, Esq., who with much lucidity traced the dim antiquity and consequent interest of the subject of many of the pictures, and the great historic value of the photographs as authentic records of these relics of architecture, which extend back almost into the night of time.
1861: P News, Jan. 25, vol. V, #125, p. 38:
The Photographic Exhibition. Second Notice.
A second examination of the photographs at the Exhibition, brings under our notice a series of specimens which we had at first passed by somewhat hastily, without discovering the amount of real beauty and excellence they possess; we refer to the pictures exhibited by Mr. Vernon Heath, consisting chiefly of views at Endsleigh, the seat of his Grace the Duke of Bedford. The whole of this series are full of picturesque beauty, and are at the same time fine examples of very perfect photography. The series consists of fourteen pictures, each, as we have said, possessing beauties of its own, but of this number, those which please us best are No. 4, in frame 213, “In Dairy Dell,” and No. 4, in frame 230, “The Gardener’s Cottage,” The latter is a most charming vignetted picture; the cottage is embowered in flowers and foliage, and surrounded by trees. We heard it explained that this vignetting was rendered necessary by the imperfections from the movement of the foliage, &c. We are unwilling, for the sake of Mr. Heath’s taste, to accept such an explanation. We would much rather believe that he willingly sacrificed some trifle in the sizes of his picture, to the production of the exquisitely artistic effect here exhibited. The general feeling pervading these photographs is very similar to that which characterises Mr. Mudd’s, to which they are only second. Great taste has been displayed in the selection of the views, and the delicate tender mode of treatment does entire justice to the views selected; full of gradation and half-tone, they are at the same time brilliant and forcible pictures.
A series of large and vigorous photographs from the Elgin Marbles,. Executed by Caldesi, Blandford, and Co., afford a satisfactory illustration of the value of photography in an educational point of view. No drawings made by the hand of man could possibly possess aq tithe of the truth and value, to the student without access to the originals, which belongs to these photographs. Of equal merit, and even more of picturesque value, inasmuch as they render perfect subjects rather than fragments, are the large photographs of “The Seasons,” executed from Thorwalsden’s bas-reliefs, and exhibited by the London Stereoscopic Company.
Those of the visitors to this exhibition who saw Mr. Hickes’ picture of “The Post-office; One Minute to Six o’clock,” shown at the last Exhibition of the Royal Academy, will be delighted with the photographic copy by Messrs. Cundall and Downes. Notwithstanding the difficulties presented to the photographer by the amount of brilliant colour in the original picture, much of the vigour and life of the painting is preserved. Perhaps the most interesting picture amongst the class of reproductions is Dovizielli’s photograph of Guido’s Aurora, which is on a very large scale, and exquisite in its truthful rendering of the original painting. Much as we are indisposed to admit the conclusions of the critic of The Times on many subjects connected with photography, we cannot forbear quoting his remarks on this subject, “How inexpressibly inferior to the photograph is the best of the many engravings of Guido’s masterpiece! And yet it has been fortunate in its engravers. But take the best in that sort, and we maintain that the best imitation which the burin of even a Strange, and Anderloni, or Longhi can produce, would be poor and dead to such a version as this of the great work of the Rospigliosi Palace. We say this with profound conviction, not unaware of the charges of heresy that such a profession of faith may expose us to from certain schools of connoisseurship. But were we sure that photographs of pictures would last, we are not sure that we should not be content to see engraving numbered among the extinct arts.” This much from a critic who has felt it necessary at the outset to guard himself very carefully from being supposed to recognize photography as a fine art, and has expressed his profound satisfaction that “the domain where photography ends should be so sharply and certainly fenced off as it is from where art begins,” is gratifying homage to the power of our art. With all our warm love for, and faith in, photography, we should have hesitated to express such an opinion as is thus uncompromisingly uttered, if not by an antagonistic critic, yet by one, whom we, as photographers, would regard as at least as “outsider.”
A further examination of some of Mr. Fenton’s pictures is more satisfactory than the first. In the series of photographs of Furness Abbey he has been very happy. No. 22, “The Nave, from the East,” is a magnificent picture, and quite stereoscopic in its relief and vigour, whilst the effect of light and shadow is very beautiful. One very peculiar effect of the lowness of tine, of which we last week complained as pervading Mr. Fenton’s photographs, is the twilight effect which seems to pervade the landscapes: almost every picture suggests the idea that it was taken just at the commencement of the “gloaming.” The effect aimed at is manifestly that of softness, and the rendering of detail in all the lights and perfect drawing in all the shadows; but the fact is, that in many of the pictures there are absolutely no lights at all, and the observer is tantalized by desire to seize a pencil and touch in a few vigorous lights to give brilliancy and life to the picture. In many of the prints there is also sufficient want of transparency in the shadows, to indicate that the negative was just verging on fogging; and suggest that a very new collodion in its highest state of sensitiveness was used, and excited in a neutral bath, when everything was in a state of trembling equilibrium between perfect results and absolute fogging. Mr. Fenton’s productions have so long been regarded as standards of excellence amongst photographers, that whilst fully recognising all their real beauties, we feel the more imperatively called upon to point out their faults, which might find imitators. No. 143, “The Terrace, &c., Harewood,” is one of the worst pictures Mr. Fenton exhibits, both as regards point of view, which produces an offensive series of parallel lines, one above another, without much apparent recession, and for the faults of treatment we have described.
Closely allied in many of the characteristics to the photographs of Mr. Fenton last year are those of Mr. Lyndon Smith. Last year some of the photographs exhibited by this gentleman we regarded as amongst the finest shown, especially in the rare, soft, poetic rendering of atmospheric effects. We fear there is a slight tendency to carry this power to excess, and to let it become a mere manner which supersedes other beauties. We should regret this, as we regard Mr. Smith ass one of our most artistic amateurs. No. 1, “A Glimpse of the Wye through the Yew Trees,” may, on inspection possess many merits; but being as it is, high above the line, above the door in fact, and far from the light, it appears a sad unsatisfactory affair, and unworthy of Mr. Smith.
Bisson Freres contribute some good photographs of Alpine scenery, possessing great detail, vigour, and breadth. No. 35, “Vallée de Chamounix,” and No. 47, “Savoie Pyramide de l’Imperatrice,” are fine examples of their peculiar style.
Foremost amongst pictures possessing the second degree of merit, if not, indeed, quite amongst the first, are the photographs of Mr. Samuel Bourne. These are by the Fothergill process, and help to strengthen the position we have often stated, and pointed out last week as strikingly illustrated in this Exhibition—namely, that it is not in process that excellence depends. There is, as we stated, Mudd representing the collodio-albumen; Maxwell Lyte the metagelantine, Bedford, Heath, and a host of others, the wet collodion process, and here is Bourne representing the Fothergill process, all achieving the highest excellence.
Mr. J. Dixon Piper puts in a most excellent appearance at this Exhibition. His picture No. 121, “Lock Gates near Ipswich,” is very fine both as a picture and a photograph. A “Study of Foliage,” No. 155, is well chosen and beautifully rendered. An invaluable study for a painter. The same remarks are true of No. 251, “A Lane Scene.”
Mr. F. C. Earl’s “Panorama of Raglan Castle,” No. 279, is a picture which ahs received, and is worthy of, much admiration. A large picture very perfectly photographed, and possessing many beauties, it is nevertheless somewhat marred in our eyes by the point of view, which presents an angle of the tower as a straight line right down the middle of picture, almost cutting it in two. The actual joinings—the picture being in three pieces—are most skillfully and judiciously managed.
Two “Views in Warwickshire,” Nos. 175 and 176, by Mr. Josiah Spode, are well worth noitice, they are brilliant and vigorous, but free from hardness. Major Gordon sends some excellent photographs from the Isle of Wight, warm in tone and perfect in manipulation, but unfortunately possessing white skies. Mr. Cruttenden’s contributions to the Exhibition are amongst the best, and full of interest, we may especially call attention to No. 273, “Kit Cotty Stones,” near Maidstone, Mr. T. Gillis’s Vallée d’Argelez, with St. Savin in the foreground, is a very fine picture. “Fur and Feather,” No. 437, an exquisite study of still life, exhibited by Mr. A. H. Talmadge, will receive much admiration. Mr. J. H. Morgan contributes a number of very excellent photographs, which we shall notice more in detail in another article, as also the fine pictures by the waxed paper, and collodion processes, by the Rev. T. M. Raven. “A Frame of Studies,” No. 534, by Mrs. Verschoyle, are worthy of attention, not simply because they are the productions of a lady amateur, but for their own intrinsic excellence.
ERRATA.—In our last week’s notice of the Exhibition a somewhat curious literal error occurred. In speaking of Mr. Fenton’s pictures we wrote, “there is, perhaps, in some of these a slight tendency to a uniform lowness of tone and want of vigour.” The printers substituted for “lowness of tone,” “looseness of tone.” A facetious friend has remarked that he thought it was a new-coined phrase in critical terminology, intended to indicate the opposite of “fastness of colour,” and meant that the tones were not permanent.
We may also here state that we are informed by Mr. Robinson that the price quoted in the catalogue for his “Holiday in the Wood,” is an error: 22s. is a misprint for £2 2s. It is amazingly cheap at that sum.
1861: P News, Feb. 8, vol. V, #127, p. 61-62:
The Photographic Exhibition. Portraiture.
A noticeable circumstance in connection with the present exhibition, is the absence of specimens from many of the best known portraitists and former exhibitors, Williams, Mayall, Kilburn, Hennah, Herbert Watkins, Silvy, and some others who enjoy a high reputation for this branch of photography, and who have on former occasions contributed to the Exhibition, more or less largely, are this year “conspicuous by their absence.” The first two gentlemen, perhaps, are scarcely correctly included. Mr. Williams has sent recently, some time after the Exhibition was opened, two or three vignettes of children, which are very pretty, but scarcely up to the specimens of former years, and Mr. Mayall has contributed the series of album portraits of the Royal Family, with which the public is familiar.
One of the first reflections which occur to us after an examination of the portraiture here, is that this most universally interesting and most largely practiced branch of our art, at least amongst professional photographers, has not progressed in nearly equal ratio with some other branches. The portraits generally, do not strike as better as a whole, than they were several years ago. There is not a frame now exhibited of better pictures, in every sense of the word, than Hennah exhibited half-a-dozen years since, whilst we scarcely remember to have seen any exhibition with such a prevalence of good landscapes. We scarcely know to what this may be attributable: whether portraiture attained its maximum of excellence earlier than landscape photography, or whether having attained a certain status, the commercial exigencies of the profession have maintained it at the dead level of goodness which it had attained, without attempting to take it higher, or whether the best pictures have not found their way to the Exhibition, we cannot quite pretend to say. There are certainly many excellent portraits, some few very good indeed; but we cannot help thinking that we have seen a great many better than those which form the staple at present in Pall Mall.
One consideration we cannot forbear suggesting as a possible reason why portraiture generally has not progressed in equal ratio with landscape photography. It is that many portraitists, confessedly, “have not time to read the journals,” and think they know all that need be known about photography, without bothering themselves with new ideas. We are, possibly, scarcely unprejudiced in our judgment, but we think they are guilty of a most suicidal error. We were amused with an illustration of this idea we heard the other day. One of our most esteemed and illustrious photographic chemists was recently staying for a short time in an a obscure rural village, when circumstances threw him into contact with a peripatetic photographer, who was taking cheap glass positives of the rustic Chloes. The pictures were fogging very much; and the savan with the courtesy which characterizes him, asked some questions with a view to helping the portraitist out of the difficulty. The reply was discouraging: “Oh! that was all right enough; it would brush off when the portrait was dry!” To shorten the story, the operator had been a photographer fifteen years; he thought he knew a thing or two; but never read the journals; not he. He was quite content, after fifteen years’ experience to take cheap glass positives, the fog on which might be brushed off with it was dry! We only give this as an extreme instance to illustrate our suggestion.
To return:--Another noticeable omission, and we must confess to ourselves a disappointing one, is the absence of portraits enlarged by the solar camera. There are two or three enlarged portraits, but as to the method of enlargement, the catalogue is silent. The most prominent of these, a portrait of Lord Macaulay, we have already noticed; further examination confirms the opinion we then expressed, and the universal comment we hear is to the same effect. It is highly valuable, as illustrating how one offence against the canons of artistic propriety and good taste is sufficient to spoil much, otherwise, skilful labour. This is a portrait in which, we doubt not, the photography was perfect, and the painting is well done, yet from the enlargement being to a size just less than life, the effect given is of an insignificantly diminutive man or an antiquated boy. An enlarged head, about half the size of life, exhibited by Lock and Whitfield, and finished in black and white chalks, is spirited and effective. There are a few other enlargements, unimportant either as to subject or method. We have seen some good enlarged pictures, produced by means of the solar camera, but we are sorry that nothing of the kind is here exhibited.
If size alone were a condition of excellence, perhaps the largest portraits (not enlarged) are those exhibited by Messrs. Baugh and Bensley. It is a pity that quantity cannot be accepted in lieu of quality; where the results, however, are bad, the badness seems offensive in the direct ratio of size. A portrait of G. P. Bidder, Esq., No. 208, notwithstanding the interest which attaches to the aforetime “calculating boy,” the now able engineer, is an especially unsatisfactory portrait—a full-length standing figure of an apparently somewhat ungainly person, exhibited in the most ungainly aspect. Some portraits of Mr. Webster, in the “Dead Heart,” are much better, being well lighted, well posed, and generally effective. All the pictures exhibited by these artists bear evident impress of the old hypo toning, and are already somewhat yellow.
No. 8, a frame containing seven portraits by J. G. Macandrew. These are all good photographs, and apparently pleasant portraits.
No. 17, a frame containing eight portraits by C. Wright. We are sorry for this artist that his works have been praised by some of the critics; there are some indications of a desire to produce artistic pictures; but there is as yet a considerable shortcoming of all the artistic excellence of which photography is capable, there is much that is hard and coarse about his pictures; which are, moreover, sulphur-toned.
Mr. Hering exhibits some very fine portraits. There is less that is common-place about these than among many other equally good photographs; the white background is in many cases a slight drawback.
No. 138 is a portrait by the Rev. Dr. Holden, coloured by C. Burlison, artist, Durham. What a tide of recollections does the name of the painter here mentioned bring across our mind!
Years before the advent of photography he was just commencing his career as an artist of high promise in our native town, and, if we rightly remember, about to start for Rome to pursue his studies, at the time of which we speak. He had commenced life as a coach-painter, and we enthusiastically believed it to be worthy of the highest ambition to emulate his example, and would gladly have stepped on to the lowest round of the ladder to follow him step by step. We love the pencil still, although our duties bring us more into the dark-room than the studio, and more to the editor’s desk than either. The portrait which has recalled these memories indicates how a clever artist may make an indifferent photographic colourist; unless, indeed, the position of the picture, right down on the ground, prevents us arriving at a just judgment, notwithstanding that we have repeatedly been on our knees to examine it.
M. Claudet exhibits some very fine portraits of a large size, graceful in pose and good in execution. Messrs. Caldesi and Blandford, also, have some very excellent specimens, in which, notwithstanding a little redundancy in background accessories, a decidedly artistic taste is manifested. We commend the method of mounting these portraits to the attention of photographers. About an inch of a very delicate drab surrounds the picture and gives the effect of an engraving on Indian paper. We prefer the effect of the tint here used to that of India paper proper. The tint is produced, we presume, by lithography on the mounting board.
The Rev. T. M. Raven has some very pleasing portraits and genre pictures, in which general arrangement, pose and expression are decidedly good. A series of portrait studies by Mr. C. T. Newcombe, are hung in a bad light, but appear to possess much merit.
“Our Charley,” No. 622, London Stereoscopic Company, is a pleasing portrait of a pleasant smiling boy in a reclining position. The portraiture is better than the photography, which is just a little hard.
Mr. R. F. Barnes has a number of portraits of unequal merit; a series of studies, No. 423, are the best specimens he exhibits.
The coloured portraiture is a striking feature of the Exhibition, one end of the room being chiefly devoted to that branch, and the wholesome rule,--at one time we believe held imperative, --of insisting on the exhibition of an uncoloured duplicate of each coloured picture, appears to a large extent abrogated.
Claiming precedence as the productions of a gentleman belonging to the very foremost rank of miniature painters, are the water-coloured specimens of Carrick, of which there are about thirty, many of them large pictures. We must fairly confess we are disappointed in them. With much that is very charming, they are, at least the major part of them, flat, feeble, and insipid. There is, moreover, an unaccountable family likeness prevailing amongst the sitters that is quite unaccountable. The interest attaching to the names of the various portraits is undoubted: we have Charles Reade, Charles Mackay. Fred. Goodall, A.R.A., Samuel Lover, S. W. Carmichael, with more artists, men of letters, and other celebrities; but we cannot understand why they should all possess in such a marked degree exactly the same tint of flesh, and the same, or nearly the same, stony grey eyes. The manipulation is throughout very perfect, and much truth, delicacy, and artistic feeling pervades the pictures in many cases; the silk and satin draperies are exquisitely painted, and are at the same time quiet and subordinated; the backgrounds, in some cases, especially the sketchy landscape backgrounds in vignetted pictures, are very beautiful, and display the true artist, but the faces are flat, and deficient in modeling, and the general effect of many of the pictures is feeble and unsatisfactory.
The oil-coloured photographs exhibited by M. Claudet do not generally err in the same direction, they are mostly brilliant, and many of them are exceedingly well painted; some of them are much too pretty to be artistic, and have unnaturally blue skies, glowing draperies, and waxy-flesh; in the majority, however, the painter and the photographer have combined to produce a perfect whole.
Lock and Whitfield, as usual, exhibit some exquisite specimens of manipulation in water colouring, but there is also the same tendency to a slaty tone in many cases, with the same large eyes and faultless mouths.
Gush and Ferguson have some very fine specimens of water-coloured portraits. Maul and Polyblank show some oil-tinted portraits which are very chalky and unlike flesh. Mr. D. Mossman shows a frame of coloured portraits by a process to imitate ivory; the imitation is tolerably effective and the result pleasing: the portraits are apparently on paper.
Notwithstanding many of the faults of coloured photographs, there is more good portraiture and more truth than we ever saw in an exhibition of miniature paintings. The men and women do look like men and women, and not like the conventional figures which for ages passed current for them amongst all but first-class miniature painters.
1861: P News, Feb. 8, vol. V, #127, p. 62:
The Scottish Photographic Exhibition. First Notice.
There never was a more unfavourable season for the enthusiastic photographer than the spring and summer of last year. “The rain it raineth every day” was, during the whole season, a great fact, which admitted of no dispute, except when it poured, and if, perchance, the sun ever “stopped in his course to play the alchemist,” he presented such a sloppy front, and was surrounded by so many discordant elements, as to defy even an operation in wet collodion. Spring is the most prized season of the year by the out-door photographer, on account of the sharp and defined outline which every object presents in nature, and also from the trees not being so thickly clad with foliage as to hide their individual forms, or obscure the numberless flickering lights which play at hide-and-seek amongst their leaves and branches; but the “merry spring time,” as it is popularly called, was dropt out of the calendar last year, and a season of darkness and gloom substituted, which set at naught the best efforts of the most accomplished photographer.
Impressed with these considerations, it was with fear and trembling that we betook ourselves to the Exhibition of the Photographic Society just opened in Mr. Hay’s Rooms, George Street, Edinburgh, but a cursory glance at once dispelled our fears, and satisfied us that the display, if it did not surpass, was worthy to be ranked side by side with any of its predecessors. This may be accounted for by several of the best productions being the fruits of previous seasons. Robinson’s “Holiday in the Wood,” for instance, we saw in London upwards of a year ago; but however that may be, let us be thankful for the treat set before us, without inquiring too minutely into the time when it was provided. One great feature in the present Exhibition is, that it contains fewer specimens of an inferior class than on any former occasion, and in consequence the average rate of excellence is more equal and better sustained; while Robinson’s two pictures of a “Holiday in the Wood,” No. 65, and the “Top of the Hill,” No. 27, are specimens of a class which, in artistic feeling, grouping, and composition, as well as in truthful light and shade, is entitled to rank with the best productions of modern art. It was Rejlander, we believe, who first originated the method of printing from various negatives, as displayed in his admirable cartoon of the “The Two Ways of Life,” which, besides containing some thirty figures grouped artistically, was embellished with a landscape background. Excellent as that work was, it wanted the vitality and sentiment with which Mr. Robinson has imbued the present compositions, and which constitute them—works of intellect.
As the crack pictures of the season, a short account of these beautiful works may be permitted. The “Holiday in the Wood” consists of a party of ten children enjoying themselves with all the zest and glee of youth on a wooded bank; the expression and character of the children are most natural and pleasing, as they weave garlands of wild flowers, &c. In the middle distance, two little girls are advancing, one of whom carries a basket; the younger has a timid expression, which is rendered with the greatest truth, and the whole subject is enclosed in a background of trees, through which the light pierces, and gives to the composition a strong and picturesque effect of light and shade. The boy in the foreground is especially remarkable for exquisite manipulation and artistic excellence. The grouping throughout is of the pyramidal form, and the pleasing disposition and arrangement of the figures leaves nothing to be desired. Who shall say after this triumph of photography to what extent the art may be carried in the hands of a man of artistic perceptions! The other picture—“The Top of the Hill,” No. 27—is not less remarkable than the preceding. It consists of a single figure, that of a girl, who stands in asn easy position, with one hand on her breast—a pitcher resting on the ground at her feet. The scene is supposed to be the top of an eminence overlooking a valley in which a river flows through a richly wooded champagne country till it is lost in the far distance. The sky is without a cloud, and the open daylight effect of the whole—exquisite gradation of tints, which so admirably convey the idea of distance—and general truth and delicacy of the composition, are truly wonderful when the difficulties in representing such a subject, of which only a photographer can have a correct idea, are taken into account. It is not pleasant to make disagreeable prophecies, but as photography has already in a great measure superseded the miniature painter, the time does not seem far distant when it may probably equally affect the painter of genre.
In portraiture, as usual, the Exhibition is much indebted to that eminent photographer Claudet, who has led the way in carrying that ranch of art to its present high degree of perfection. His beautifully clear and brilliant style, so truthful in its delicate middle tints and expression of local colour and effect, is regulated by artistic knowledge and a fine eye for the graceful and beautiful. Two of his largest portraits hang below “A Holiday in the Wood,” Nos. 66 and 67. In the full-length of a handsome lady in white muslin dress, the artist has succeeded in giving the delicate shading of the white dress with all the truth and subtlety of nature. Anotehr exquisite example of Claudet is “The Pet,” No. 570, a small full-length of a young girl in a fanciful costume. This is quite a gem in its way—the perfection of photography in exquisite manipulation, texture, delicacy, and taste. All Claudet’s other portraits will amply repay the most critical inspection.
Of our own artists, Tunny and Moffat take the lead in portraiture; Dallas is also very good, but too dark in colour, and consequently neither so agreeable or effective as the others. Of Mr. Tunny’s portraits those of Mr. Duncan M’Laren, No. 490, and Mr. Robert Allan, No. 488, are admirable specimens. The first is one of the best portraits we have ever seen; and Mr. Moffat’s Professors Christison and Syme, Nos. 552 and 524, are no less favourable examples of his talent. The portrait of Principal Brewster is also extremely good, though scarcely equal to Claudet’s. The portraits by an amateur, Mr. J. Ramsay L’Amy, are amongst the most creditable things in the rooms. They are excellent in tone, colour and effect, and have a look of life about them which is very pleasing. Mr. L’Amy also exhibits several landscapes that are equally satisfactory. His coloured portraits seem good photographs spoiled—though from no fault of the painter. The beautiful small compositions of Lady Mathison are always interesting. Four small groups, No. 32 et seq., are artistically disposed and executed with taste and precission. [sic] Her “La Penserosa,” No. 564, and “L’Allegro,” No. 576, are also happy conceptions, and well executed. The studies of Mr. A. T. Herries in Guernsey, Bruntisland, &c., are this year distinguished by greater precision than formerly. Some of them are first-rate. Dr. Walker’s two studies, Nos. 304 and 305, are picturesque bits, though scarcely expressed with that completeness we have seen on former occasions. “The Greenhouse,” by Mr. George Moir, No. 470, and a study of an “Old Lady,” by Mr. John Cay, No. 566, though both small, are highly creditable. The Russian portraits of Mr. J. M’Gregor, No. 252 et seq., do not impress us with a favourable idea of Russian beauty—they are, however, well executed; and his “Finnish Egg Women,” “Hungarian Tinkers,” &c., No. 307, are curious. Mr. Horatio Ross is celebrated for his love of and proficiency in field sports, and displays the same taste in his selection of subjects for photographic representation. He may be termed the Landseer of amateur photography. The spoils of the chase are exhibited in four pictures, No. 300, and very careful studies they are, though we cannot say Mr. Ross has been quite so successful in his white hares as Claudet in his white gown.
The landscapes of Vernon Heath, are amongst the most attractive in the Exhibition, and bright sunny scenes they exhibit. The execution is delicate and highly finished, and the subjects well chosen and tastefully handled, but the texture in its lightness is apt to diverge into muzziness; and had the execution been a little sharper we should have considered it an improvement. Mr. T. Annan’s landscapes are all exceedingly clever and picturesque. No. 276, “Aberfoyle,” is complete as a picture; and No. 280, “Inversnaid Waterfall,” is equally good. In winter scenes, in architecture, and in portrait, this artist is equally at home, and his works rank amongst the best in the rooms. Mr. D. Campbell is also an able photographer. His “Culzean Castle,” No. 101; “View on the Girvan,” No. 378; and “Craufurdland Castle,” No. 398, are all excellent specimens, and highly creditable to his talent. In architecture, the “North-West Door of Rouen Cathedral,” No. 283, by Bisson Freres, shows the capabilities of photography for such subjects. In detail, texture, and relief this photograph is perfectly illusory, and the ablest of artists, with unbounded time at command, might despair to reach its truth and finished excellence. – The Scotsman.
1861: P News, Feb. 8, vol. V, #127, p. 72:
Talk in the Studio. [Selection]
PHOTOGRAPHY AT ST. PETERSBURG. H. Denier, a very celebrated Russian Photographer, bids fair to shoot a head of all we have yet produced in the way of photographic portraiture. We saw recently a large group of eight, from a plate about 18 by 14, each figure in focus, perfect in half tone, and without signs of distortion. The grouping was easy, natural, and graceful; nothing of artistic effect being sacrificed to the generally limited powers of the lens, which in this case appeared to meet the demands made upon it.
PHOTOGRAPHIC COLOLURISTS’ CLUB.—Messrs. A. H. Wall, of 28, Old Bond Street, and Walter Petty, of 121, Regent Street, are now engaged in organizing a club of photographic colourists, one of the chief objects of which will be of professional utility and importance. Communications will be gladly received by the above gentlemen.
1861: P News, Feb. 8, vol. V, #127, p. 72:
To Correspondents: [selection].
W. H. Warner—We will have pleasure in proposing you as a member. Mr. Howard’s address is 23, Whittingham Villas, Studley Road, Stockwell.
W.D. – Fenton’s view of Furness Abbey, No. 22, in the Photographic Exhibition, is also exhibited in the Architectural Photographic Exhibition; and the number, so far as our memory serves us, is 211. ….
1861: P News, Feb. 15, vol. V, #128, p. 78-79:
Photographic Tourist. Photography in Java. [by Walter Woodbury – id. on p. 127]
Account of a short photographic ramble through the interior of the east end of the island.
With our minds elated by the prospect of a pleasant trip, through the wildest and most beautiful scenery of Java, and with a first-rate supply of apparatus, including one of Smart’s dark tents, which we had just received by mail from England, and in which we anticipated pleasant working, we (a party of three) started from Kedirie, an inland town of Java, at the close of a hot day, for a sugar station about eight miles on our road, and arrived with the decline of daylight at this, our stopping-place for the night.
The scenery on the way so far (the road being principally through a flat country composed of tawahs, or rice fields), presented nothing of interest to us in a photographic point.
Our host, Mr. Boyd, a Scotsman, received us with true British hospitality, and after entertaining us with all the amusement the place could afford in the shape of two dancing-girls, whose monotonous and unmusical voices soon wearied us, we (it being a fine moonlight night) proposed to take a stroll, but were prevented by our host informing us that the neighbourhood, within a few yards of the gate, was infested by tigers, so, after a long conversation on the dangers of the place, we retired for the night. By daylight next morning we started off our coolies with the traps, but being a wet morning we delayed our departure till alter on in the day, and after thanking and bidding adieu to our kind host, we started accompanied by eight or nine Javanese, mounted on horseback, as, having to pass a celebrated tiger haunt, it was not considered advisable to allow us to travel alone. The wildness of the place, being through tall jungle grass some twelve feet high, and so thick as to prevent the possibility of seeing more than a yard into it, and with the name it had got, altogether made this part of the journey rather exciting, even the horses seemed to have an instinct of danger.
After a cool ride through deliciously shaded coffee gardens, filled with monkeys and wild pigs (which from time impudence might well have been mistaken for tame ones), we arrived at Parce, where it was our intention to stay for a few days, having heard of some ruins in the neighbourhood, there also being a pasangreahan, or house kept by Government for the accommodation of travelers, where we could make our home for a short time.
The first object of interest which attracted our attention on arrival was an immense specimen of the Waringhin tree, in height about 180 feet, and covering with its shadow a diameter of 150 feet, planted in front of the pasangrahan, and offering a fine subject for the lens, though on trial we found that from its immense size it was impossible to recede far enough away from it to receive it on the plate, even with a lens embracing a large angle.
This was our first trial of Smart’s tent, and as we had previously worked in a native-made affair, found everything very convenient, and easily put up or taken down; the only thing that might be improved is the window, which, owing to its being placed too high, makes the development of negatives rather difficult, the light falling on the plate from above, instead of reaching it from below. The India-rubber folding-tray and washing-bottle will not stand long in this place, as on opening them they are generally all stuck together, and are with great difficulty separated. The tent is as good as can be desired for working wet collodion, with these exceptions, the latter of which would probably not occur in an European climate.
On the morning after our arrival we were waited upon by the chief of the village, to whom we expressed our wishes regarding his assisting us with men to enable us to find the ruins; after arranging everything for the journey to one of the temples he left us, and on the following morning we started. Our way lay through a forest such as we had never before seen in Java, lofty trees, each composed of hundred of stems twisted together, and at no great height branching off into the most fantastic shapes, throwing down feelers similar to the banyan, others so covered with the most beautiful parasites as to hide altogether the stem from which they sprang; the ground below so overgrown with ferns and an endless variety of small bushes, and the air of gloom and quietness that hung on everything, even though in the middle of the day with the sun at its greatest power, altogether formed a scene long to be treasured in our minds.
After a ride of two miles into the thickest part of the forest, through the narrow horse-track made by the natives, we arrived at the temple, which (though interesting, and covered with many fine carvings) was so hemmed in by trees as not to allow of a single point of view; so we returned, not however without having picked out a lovely bit of forest scenery on the way, which we determined to return and photograph the following day.
At eight o’clock the next morning we were on the desired spot (the coolies having gone on before us), and after pitching our tent proceeded to select the best point of view for a small rivulet prettily overhung by ferns and hanging rattans, making a nice picture; owing to the extreme darkness of the forest, on looking at the ground glass, it was almost impossible to distinguish any image, even using a half-inch stop, making it very difficult to focus. (I am now speaking of a view camera 7 x 9).
The first plate was exposed three minutes, but was much underdone for a negative, though in ordinary circumstances, and a well-lit view, fifteen seconds would have sufficed; by the time the next plate was prepared the sun had emerged from a cloud behind which it was previously hidden, therefore throwing a nasty glare on to one part of the view, putting the other by contrast into perfect darkness. I may here mention that having, in a country like this, to deal principally with foliage, we have found that to get anything like softness pictures must be taken in the shade, as where the leaves happen to be turned to the sun the consequence is a dense patch in the resulting negative; the glare of the sun, especially after nine in the morning, being so very dense, a large proportion of bromide in the collodion is also necessary to ensure softness.
This being the case, and having pitched our tent in a spot where there was no chance of a ray of sun penetrating, we sat down on a bank and waited patiently till that luminary should again be obscured, in the meantime amusing ourselves by watching the gambols of a troop of monkeys perched on a tree over-head, who, from the manner in which they regarded us, seemed to be much interested in our proceedings; a number of peacocks were also visible at a short distance.
The desired moment having at length arrived, we proceeded to try again, and this time succeeded in obtaining a perfect negative, though with the long exposure of five minutes; after taking a stereoscope of the same subject, we proceeded, during the interval of cloudiness, to take another view in the forest much more extended, which also turned out satisfactorily, and, being much better lit-up, was done in forty seconds, giving an opportunity of introducing the figures of two Javanese.
After having obtained four good negatives, two large and two stereoscopic, we packed up our tent and returned to breakfast at the pasangrahan, during our stay at which place we amused ourselves in the evening by shooting, there being plenty of game, including deer, wild pigs, peacocks, and many other birds, always taking care not to be out after dusk, in consequence of the number of tigers in the neighbourhood.
Our next day’s destination lay at a ruined temple (said to be six miles, but consequently proving three) at which place we arrived late in the morning; at first sight, in consequence of the ruin being so shaded, we despaired of obtaining a picture; but after walking round it we chose one corner, having a splendid background of trees, as being the only suitable point of view; as it was, the camera had to be placed within eight yards of the building, while the trees forming the background were some fifty yards away, testing well the depth of focus of the lens.
Our first difficulty was to obtain water, there being none in the neighbourhood, and without which we could do nothing, as the natives (thinking probably that we had come for the purpose of in some way or other desecrating their temple) refused to give us any assistance in obtaining it; however, on mounting to the top of the ruin for the purpose of examining it, we discovered a hole cut into an ornamental block of stone, which contained sufficient of the desired
Fluid for our purpose. In many cases we have had to use the water from the coca-nut, each of which will yield about a pint. After filling our water-bottle we took the view chosen, first on the large, and then on the stereo plate, with an exposure for the former of eight and the latter ten minutes, keeping the plate damp by means of a piece of wetted velvet thrown over the cameras, which succeeds admirably well. There being nothing else of interest in the vicinity, we mounted our horses, and the road lying through sawahs (rice-fields) for two miles, with not the least shelter from the burning rays of the noonday sun, made the change from the shady coolness of the grove in which we had been working, anything but pleasant; the best thing in such a case is to gallop along, thereby causing a current of air, which is much preferably to prolonging the journey by slow travelling.
I will here give a detailed account of the apparatus which we take with us on a journey of a month or six weeks:--First, our tent, containing water-bottle, washing tray, &c.; a portable
7 x 9 folding camera in leather case, containing slides and lens, also a silk handkerchief for wiping off any dew that may form on the lens, on placing the camera in the sun; a deal box 15 inches broad, 18 inches long, and 15 deep, which contains a mounted glass bath, 8 x 10, filled with nitrate solution; one 7 x 9 and stereo plate box, each one containing a dozen cleaned glasses; two Burfield and Rouch’s collodion pourers, each filled with two ounces collodion, ready iodized; three ten-ounce bottles, containing iron developer, cyanide solution, gold solution: three two-ounce bottles of acetic acid (glacial), pryogallic acid, and a ten-grain solution of nitrate of silver for second development: besides these, cloths for polishing, focusing velvets, spirit level, lamp and matches, for drying the plates before returning to the plate boxes, and any other little thing necessary, such as a strand of gutta percha for laying the wet pictures on when taken; on the lid of the box is pasted a slip of paper, on which is written a list of everything contained therein, this we make a practice of examining before starting, so as to prevent the possibility of having to return for some such trifle as the lens or collodion, and by this means nothing is forgotten.
The camera tent, and box, together with the stand, fit into a piece of basket-work, which, with a bamboo passed through it, is easily carried by four coolies.
We also have a box containing a relay of materials which is generally sent on before, this contains a stock of glass, of both sizes, in plate boxes, 1 twenty-ounce bottle of collodion, 1 twenty-ounce bottle of iodizer (forming, when mixed in equal quantities, an alcoholic collodion of the proportion of five parts ether; to seven alcohol), funnels, filtering paper, a stock of clean cloths, and an extra quantity of bath solution, in case of accident, complete the list. (To be continued.)
1861: P News, Feb. 15, vol. V, #128, p. 84:
Talk In The Studio [selection]
HER MAJESTY AT THE EXHIBITION.—Her Majesty the Queen, and His Royal Highness the Prince Consort, accompanied by the Princesses Alice, Helena, and Louise, visited the Photographic Exhibition in pall-Mall East, yesterday morning. In attendance were the Viscountess Jocelyn, the Hon. Caroline Cavendish, Lord Alfred Paget, and Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. D. de Ros. Her Majesty, with her accustomed punctuality, arrived in Pall-Mall at just two minutes past ten in the morning, and remained nearly two hours engaged in examining the various productions, with which she expressed herself highly gratified.
THE ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION.—An interesting lecture on the Photographs of French Gothic Architecture of the Thirteenth Century, was given by R. P. Pullan, Esq., on the evening of Tuesday last. The lecturer emphatically claimed for photography the position of a fine art, and for the cultivated photographer the position of an artist.
NEW PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.—A contemporary states that a new society is about to be formed in Edinburgh. A preliminary meeting has been held to consider the matter, and from the general opinions expressed, it appears probably that the meetings will be held fortnightly, and partake largely of a conversational character. A meeting for the election of officers &c., is to be held on the 20th instant at Buchannan’s Temperance Hotel.
DOOMSDAY BOOK.—It was announced, at a recent soirée at Southampton, that the original “Post-Office Directory” for 1080, had been disinterred from the Record Office, and will under the superintendence of Col. Sir H. James, be photographed in extensor, so that all good subjects of Her Majesty will acquire the important information of how many acres of land, horses, carts, beeves, and swine were possessed by the vassals of William the Conqueror. The process used will be Col. James’ method of photo-lithography.
PHOTOGRAPHS OF LORD JOHN RUSSELL.—His Lordship sat for several negatives at his residence, Chesham Place, to the artist of the London Stereoscopic Company on Tuesday last. Some very fine portraits were, we understand, obtained.
THE FIRST PORTRAIT.—The Prussian correspondent of one of our daily contemporaries writes:--Princes cannot but allow themselves to become famous, even in their days of nonage. I have to acknowledge the important fact that the hundred pictures destined to perpetuate the features of baby Prince William, the very first has just made its appearance in the world of art. The portrait is a photograph depicting the son of our Princess, in the grave and solemn act of sleeping a royal sleep, and perhaps dreaming royal dreams. In the bookseller’s windows in Berlin you may see the quaint little fellow in his c radle by the side of a still more serious picture, representing his late Majesty.
1861: P News, Feb. 22 vol. V, #129, p. 91-92:
Photographic Tourist. Photography in Java. [by Walter Woodbury – id. on p. 127]
Account of a short photographic ramble through the interior of the east end of the island.
We had now been staying four days at Paree, during which time we had photographed all of interest in the neighbourhood, and it was then our intention to have proceeded to Ngantang, but the controleur, (a Government official, whose duty it was to examine all the coffee lands belonging to Government), having arrived, we determined to stay a few days longer, and accompany him in his inspections in the district, giving us a chance of seeing a deal of the surrounding country.
We also had an opportunity of seeing the reverence Government officials are held in by the poorer classes of the Javenese, [sic]as in riding along the roads all the coolies kneel on the ground, and hold their hands in a praying position until he has passed, even the chief of the place (who with strangers quite affects European manners), sits only on the ground in his presence.
Some years ago the district had its own controleur, who met with his death in an extraordinary manner, the circumstances of which I will relate as told to me by the Javanese. I must first state how we came to hear of it.
We had been told of some ruined tomb at a short distance (which we wished to see whether worth photographing or not), adjoining which was a shed containing a box of clothes, supposed to have been worn by the chiefs of the place some 700 years ago; these being held in great reverence by the natives, having always a guard of five men, who, at their death, are replaced, we were naturally anxious to see the place at all events; but on asking assistance from the chief, he, to prevent our going, told us that if we were decided on seeing it we could, but that we should be certain to get into trouble, as no European had ever been there without subsequent misfortune. As an instance, they cited the case of the controleur before mentioned, who, regardless of the Javanese superstitions, entered the place, and dressed himself in the garments; the consequence of which, they say, was that he could not go from home afterwards without meeting a tiger; and on going a journey one day to Kedirie, on passing the jungle, a tiger sprang on to his carriage, and, without harming, so affected him with fright, that he died shortly after returning home. Many of the European residents verify the fact of his meeting the tiger and his subsequent death, and also say, that if we had persisted in visiting the place, and had not met with misfortune, that they (the Javanese) would have brought it on to us by producing dysentery, or other sickness, which they are very expert at, merely for the sake of verifying their prophecies. But the Government of Dutch India wisely do not allow these superstitions to be interfered with even by their own officials.
The controleur having left, in the evening we proceeded to pack up our things, but on examining the chemicals found the cyanide of potassium was missing; this was rather annoying, as we were upwards of a hundred miles from where we could procure more, and we were doubtful whether any pictures taken in the meantime, and not fixed, would keep until we could get another supply, which would at least take a week, as one of us was obliged to go on horseback to the seaport of Pasoerean, where we had a relay of materials, and from which a stranger would not have been able to select the right one; the only explanation of its loss was that some of the men about the place had heard of its poisonous properties, and thought it might be made useful; we offered a reward of fifty rupees, but without effect.
During our stay at Paree our table consisted of several strange dishes,--peacock steaks, very much resembling veal; a kind of fat caterpillar found in the rattan, which, though rather offensive to the sight, are very delicious, and considered the greatest delicacy by the Javanese; the legs of a large species of bat, measuring five feet across the wings; and above all the young shoots of the rattan which, forming as it does in England, an important addition to the dress of ladies, here makes us an excellent substitute for asparagus, which in taste and appearance it closely resembles, of other vegetables we had none, rice generally taking their place.
On the following day, after the departure of the controleur, we started off twenty-seven coolies with our apparatus, wearing apparel, a case of wine, and one of provisions, as we intended to stay some time at Ngantang, our destination, and every one requiring so many clothes in a hot climate makes the baggage rather heavy.
After riding on the road a few miles we came upon a splendid banyan tree, stretching its roots over a large surface of ground, but as usual without being able to get a single point of view, owing to its immense size; we, therefore, rode on to our intended destination for the night, a small village which had also its place of accommodation for travelers; but the people being taken by surprise, not expecting anybody, shut themselves in their houses, and gave out that they were all away. It being by this time rather late in the day, and having as yet had nothing to eat, we all felt rather puckish, but could get nothing from them; but having, luckily, with us a peacock, shot the previous day, and having taken possession of the pasangrahan, we set to work to grill part of it, what with this, a tin of “pate de fois gras,” one of biscuits, and a bottle of wine, and the assistance of a Chinese opium seller in the neighbourhood, who sent us cakes, oranges, and tea, we did not fare so badly; so after giving our horses grass which we ordered our coolies to cut, we determined to push on to Ngantang (about 11 miles further) that night, as there was no chance of our getting sleeping accommodation where we were.
As the road had (from our starting-place) hitherto been through a flat country, and now commencing to mount the hills, we found the atmosphere cooler at every step, as we had to follow the mountain ridges sometimes falling 300 feet on each side, the views around us were truly grand.
At every turning something new would burst upon us, some distant stretch of country, or lovely vale; mountain ferns also made their appearance, never seen in the lowlands; after mounting hill after hill, to the height of perhaps 3,000 feet above the sea, we commenced gradually to descend, the road at last opening out into a long valley, at the other end of which lay our destination; our horses were by this time nearly done up, the continual ascent having been too much for them, after previously coming such a distance; an English horse would, perhaps, go twice as far without giving in, but here the horses are not larger than an English pony, making them, of course not able to endure near the same fatigue.
By the time we arrived we were nearly as wearied as our horses, having been exposed to the sun ever since early morning, and were very glad to rest ourselves.
Ngantang is about one of the prettiest situated places in Java, being shut in on three sides by mountain ranges, the volcanic mountain Kloet rising in front to a great height, rice fields and cocoa-nut plantations reaching to its foot.
Lying, as Ngantang does, some 1,700 feet above the level of the sea, the climate is very agreeable, at night being so cold as to require two or three blankets, though in the middle of the day, and in the direct rays of the sun, being nearly as hot as in a lower district.
The pasangrahan, unlike the one at Paree (which having been the residence of a European was built of stone) was in the true Javanese style, built of matting, and roofed with jungle grass, having a room built in front open at all sides, for use during the day.
Having arranged all things satisfactorily for our comfort, our first few days were spent in taking walks and rides in the neighbourhood, selecting the best views so as to lose no time in our operations when we should receive the cyanide.
Living, as we now lad to do, far from European society, and having none but Javanese to talk to, the time passed rather monotonously, also our having so many nice views in the neighbourhood, and our not being able to take them, several within a short distance of the house we tried, instantly transferring them to a dark place to be fixed at a future time, but with the uncertainty as to whether they would remain unchanged, as we did not care to take our materials any distance, for fear that our labours might all be lost.
After eight days of impatience the cyanide arrived, and we proceeded in the first place to fix what few views we had taken, the cyanide acting as usual, though leaving a peculiar film slightly obscuring the transparency of the blacks, not, however, in any way affecting the picture as a negative. (To be continued.)
1861: P News, Feb. 22 vol. V, #129, p. 96:
Talk In The Studio.
ROYAL PORTRAITS.—Mr. Mayall had been engaged during the last few days, at Buckingham Palace, in taking a new series of photographic portraits of the Queen and Royal family. The series published last summer acquired a popularity so great, that for some time past the negatives have been inadequate to the production of more than a percentage upon the demand. This had led to the issue of pirated copies of the originals, which are at once libels upon the art, the artist, and the royal originals. This piracy is an evil of the most irritating nature to the first-class photographer, as he is, by it, not only injured in the purse, but in reputation, by the spurious copies being regarded as his work. We regret to say it is a species of dishonesty that some respectable houses have not hesitated to adopt. We noticed, the other day, in passing the establishment of a respectable house, and one, which, if we mistake not, has made heavy complaints of the piracies of photographs issued by it, a whole series of card portraits which, from the want of sharpness, and the peculiar texture or grain which pervaded the prints, bore unmistakable traces of being copies. In regard to the royal portraits, in the fact of it being impossible to meet the supply at a legitimate price, we have heard that they have been offered to “the trade” as low as three shillings a dozen, a price which would at once indicate their quality and original. Mr. Mayall has, we understand, notwithstanding the imperfection of the copyright law, been able to adopt, in regard to the series now in preparation, a plan which will enable him at once to detect and punish piracy.
SOUTH LONDON PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.—The usual monthly meeting of this society was held in St. Peter’s School Room, Walworth Road. The subjects which were to occupy attention consisted in the resumption of adjourned discussion on Celestial and Meteorological Photography; the continuation of the Report of the Experimental Committee …; and a Paper on Photography on Wood, by Mr. Contenci. A report of the proceedings will appear in our next.
NEW PHOTOGRAPHIC PERIODICAL.—We observe that a new French Photographic journal is announced to appear fortnightly, under the joint-editorship of M. Lacan and Herr Liessegang, our esteemed German correspondent. The title of the new aspirant for the suffrages of the reading photographic public is, Le Moniteur de la Photographie: Revue internationale et universelle des Progress de la Photographie.”
ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.—A lecture was delivered at the society’s rooms, on Tuesday evening, on the Collection of Indian Photography, by James Fergusson, Esq., F.R.A.S. The lecture consisted of an interesting explanation of the peculiarities and beauties of the Indian Architecture, its immense importance as a historic record, and the value of photographs as affording persons in this country efficient means of studying and systematizing such records. He urged the importance of procuring complete and systematic series of photographs of all the important palatial and ecclesiastical architecture of the Indian empire. An incidental remark on one of the pictures exhibited struck us as important. Referring to the photograph of a fine temple, he remarked, that unfortunately it conveyed no idea of the building, which was really of white marble, and most brilliant in effect; whilst the photograph was somewhat dark and dingy: he presumed it might be due to the non-actinic yellow tinge which the marble might have acquired. On examining the picture at the close of the lecture, we found that, although this circumstance might have had its effect, and under-exposure a little more effect, the chief cause of the dingy appearance which characterized the building was due to a stopped-out sky, which, by presenting a glaring mass of white paper, killed and degraded the tone of the building beneath in a most injurious degree, and thus destroyed its true character.
POPULAR SCIENCE.—We met with an amusing instance the other evening of the various methods of illustrating science for the million. In the street near the National gallery was placed a table nearly arranged, round the edge of which was placed alternately a stereoscope with slides, and a microscope with objects, for the inspection, at one penny per head, of the intelligent gamins of London.
1861: P News, March 1, vol. V, #130, p. 99-99:
Critical Notices. Stereographs of English Scenery. By W. Woodward, Nottingham.
We have received from Mr. Woodward a packet of his exquisite stereographs of English Scenery, consisting of views of Fountain’s Abbey, Tintern Abbey, Rievaulx Abbey, Bolton Abbey, Easby Abbey, Helmsley Castle, Raglan Castle, Chepstow Castle, and Lichfield Cathedral. There are between tow and three dozen subjects, which Mr. Woodward explains comprise all he was able to get during the late unfavourable summer. The wonder is that anything at all was obtained, and still more that anything so excellent as the majority of the photographs before us, which are uniformly specimens of first-class photography.
The first that enforce our attention and interest are the series of Tintern Abbey. This fine ruin has so often been done, both by the painter and the photographer, that one might well have become sated with it, and regard it used up, especially after Bedford’s noble pictures; but we examine these stereographs with unabated, or rather with fresh interest. Mr. Woodward has gone about his work with an artist’s feeling, and his selection of point of view and general treatment has added, in many instances, a new charm to that which was already beautiful. We especially commend attention to No. 210, “Tintern Abbey from the South East. In this slide, unlike too many photographic views, the object has not been to fill the picture with the building itself, but to compose a picture of which the abbey forms part. For vigour, gradation, arrangement, breadth, and general pictorial effect, this is a decided gem.
The Fountain’s Abbey series, consisting of eight views, are in no wise inferior to those of Tintern, and are not the less full of interest because very familiar. The especial charm here again is the selection of point of view. No. 201, “Bridge over the River Skell,” is an exquisite slide, in which the transparent water of the babbling brook reflects the dark over-hanging foliage, and with the rustic bridge and ivy-clad building combines to form a charming picture. No. 122, “The Bridge leading to the Eleemosynary,” is another view to which we commend attention.
The whole of the Raglan Castle series are fine pictures; No. 226, “A View from the Walls,” especially pleases us. We have not space, however, to enter into detail as to the merits of each picture worthy of notice. The series throughout are good specimens of photography, and are, with the exception of the white skies in some—not all—possessed of much pictorial excellence, [sic .]
The negatives are produced by the collodio-albumen process, and illustrate as do Mr. Mudd’s and others in the present Exhibition, that there is no necessity for such negatives to be hard and chalky.
One point strikes us especially: the uniformity of the printing, and the rich warm tone which prevails. No higher testimony is needed to the value of the alkaline gold-toning process—which Mr. Woodward, unlike many professional printers, adopts—than these pictures, in which neither mealiness, flatness, slatyness, or any of the manifold sins with which this process has been charged, are here at all apparent. Permanency is here obtained without any sacrifice, but with an accession of beauty.
1861: P News, March 15, vol. V, #132, p. 126-127:
Photographic Tourist. Photography in Java.* (Continued from p. 92) [by Walter Woodbury – id. on p. 127]
Account of a short photographic ramble through the interior of the east end of the island.
Our first trip, after getting the cyanide, was to a hill in the neighbourhood, at a small elevation, though commanding a fine view of the valley of Ngantang, and which we took as a panorama in three views, it being too extensive for a single picture: we were very lucky to get some fine lowering clouds in the mountain range in the background, which, together with the sun illuminating some portions of the view, and others being in shade, had a very fine effect.
Each of the three plates succeeded perfectly on the first trial, with an exposure of fifteen seconds for the first, and eighteen and twenty-two for the others, owing to the decrease of light, as the sun had set by the time we had packed all up, the short twilight allowing us barely time to get home before it was quite dark.
In going and returning, we had to wade through a small river, rather above our knees, as there was no bridge without going some miles round; from it we filled a bamboo tube with water, and carried it up the hill with us, knowing we should get none there.
During one of our excursions at this time we tried the slanting diaphragm, recommended in “Sutton’s Dictionary,” by which the sky receives so much less amount of light than the foreground, giving the contrast with much greater truth than the ordinary diaphragm, with which it is difficult to take a view where a foreground of dark trees and a distance of mountains rendered blue by atmosphere, are required to be produced on the same plate.
Although we are rarely troubled by the many minor annoyances of the collodion process, such as foggy bath, spots, development stains, &c., &c., still we sometimes have our troubles, as what photographer has not, even in the more easily workable climate of England. About the time I write of, we were on one of our trips in the neighbourhood, very much bothered by not being able to obtain the slightest density in the negative with any amount of exposure, though this only lasted a few days. Again, shortly after, on taking some stereo views, every plate showed a very faint kind of stain on the part that touched the bottom of the slide, therefore spoiling all effect of clouds in the sky part of the picture. Many would perhaps not care about this, but with Indian ink or black varnish black out the sky, and so hide the imperfect part; but we have long had an aversion to that patch of white, which passes for sky in so many of the stereographs offered for sale. We examined our slide, thinking perhaps it was wet from the drainings, but found the plate only touched at the corners, therefore it could not be that; and after trying every remedy we could think of, such as a strip of blotting paper to prevent the accumulation of silver at the bottom of the plate, well draining it, &c. &c., we were obliged to have recourse to our other nitrate bath, when the effect ceased entirely, and things went well again; several days were spent in rambling about, taking every choice little bit that attracted our attention, until we had exhausted the place for several miles round; after which we proceeded on our way to Malang, a place resorted to for its beneficial climate by invalids,; [sic] on the way we stopped twice, to take some pretty river views, introducing the wild ferns, which look very well in a photograph; also a mountain pass, the rocks at the side being covered with wild bananas and bamboo.
Halfway to Malang we stopped at a place called Batœ, where we had hoped to get a view of the Ardjuna, a large volcano with the smoke issuing from the crater; but on rising in the morning, we found the sun just peeping from behind the mountain, and falling right into the mouth of the lens; this would not do, so we waited until evening, but shortly after ten clouds gathered rapidly over the mountain, and by about midday it was entirely covered, and remained so until night. As this was invariably the case daily, we gave up the idea, and started the next morning for Malang, where we arrived at 12 o’clock, just in time for tiffin, there being a good hotel there, which was a great treat to us, having had for some time to put up with what we could get.
As there was a good post road from Malang down to the seaport of Pasoerean, we hired post-horses for the journey, taking in the carriage our apparatus for photographing some ruins on the way down, sending the heavy portion of our baggage in carts. The ruins being only one post about six miles on the way, we arrived there about 7 o’clock, and at once took a picture of the small temple, which was so surrounded by a species of tree, sacred to the Javanese, that we were obliged to crowd it into the plate, as we could get no distance away, without having several boughs close in front of the lens, and the natives would on no account allow a branch to be touched. The next subject, in the immediate neighbourhood, was a gigantic figure, carved out of a single block of stone, being one of the finest specimens of the ancient Javanese sculpture, another figure representing the head of an elephant, with six hands was the next; this concluded our morning’s work, which we were not sorry for, as the sun was getting too powerful to be pleasant, the place being situated in a much lower district than where we had previously been working. After repacking our things we once more started, and arrived by noon at Pasoerean, after after [sic] having spent an agreeable two months tour, and made a nice collection of some twenty-five to thirty views of each sort, stereoscopic and otherwise.
As many photographers in India and other tropical places might perhaps be somewhat benefited by a few remarks regarding our experience, I will make a few notes on our materials, and mode of working, having already detailed our apparatus for travelling. First, regarding collodion, we have obtained some from nearly every celebrated maker in England, and after a deal of disappointment found invariably that nothing like sensitiveness was attained, with any of them, so we have for a considerable time manufactured our own. The pyroxyline in the ordinary manner, Hardwich’s formula, having given us the best result, making it only in small quantities as we require it, as it is much the better for being newly made. The solvent in proportions of 5 parts of ether to 1 of alcohol, the bulk of the alcohol 6 parts more, being added as the iodizer. This we have found by a series of experiments to be the best proportions, though during a late visit to England, I failed entirely with it, finding it very deficient in sensitiveness, compared to other collodion, while here we find on the contrary, that it gives pictures in a third of the time of the ordinary ethereal collodion, both being made of the same materials. For an iodizer, iod. pot. Is decidedly the best, cadmium giving a ropy sort of film, a a [sic] proportion of bromide is also necessary whether for negatives or positives. As developer, iron certainly gives the best results, intensifying with pryo if necessary, as if pyro is used alone the chances are, that the action of light will be reversed at the moment of completing the negative, having for a long time been annoyed with similar results, in nearly every case prior to our using iron. The best nitrate bath, made with the ordinary 30 grains fused nitrate of silver acidified by adding half a drop of nitric acid to an ounce of bath, and iodized by allowing one or two large plates, coated with iodized collodion, to remain in it for a night. This bath rarely gets out of order, as the evaporation always balances the amount of silver taken out, making the addition of fresh nitrate unnecessary, [sic .] As regards cameras it is difficult to say which is best suited for a hot climate, as most of them go to peices [sic], through the alternate changes of heat and damp. If the metal cameras advertised in our last Photographic Journals, turn out what they profess, they will be one of the greatest boons to Indian photographers.
After going through a course of dry processes, from the albumen on glass, to the raspberry syrup, we have come to the conclusion, that in a country where coolies can be had on the shortest notice, that the certainty of the wet process, outweighs all the advantages in portability of the dry.
With these oft repeated formulæ, I will bring my paper to a close, hoping that some one of the numerous travelers that photography attracts to foreign places, may gain some small benefit from my experience. Walter Woodbury
Java, October 30th, 1860.
1861: P News, March 22, vol. V, #133, p. 139-140:
Exhibition of the Photographic Society or Scotland.
We make the following interesting extracts regarding the Scottish Exhibition from the various criticisms in the Edinburgh newspaper press. The Scotsman, in a second notice, remarks—
“The perfection to which sun printing has attained within so very short a time is scarcely less wonderful than its origin. Being one of the latest, though not the least remarkable, of modern discoveries, many who were present at its birth still survive to witness its ripened power and rejoice in its triumphant success. The time has been, however, and that not long ago, when its merits in an artistic sense were not so conspicuous as now. The discovery of Talbot gave a new impulse to the art, and within the last few years both the chemical manipulation and construction of the instruments employed have been so much improved as to render the process almost perfect. But mechanical means alone, however perfect, are not sufficient to form a good photographer. He must, in addition, possess artistic taste and knowledge—a capacity for arrangement and composition, to enable him to place his model in the position best adapted for displaying its natural advantages, and by a skilful distribution of the chiaroscuro and appropriate use of accessories, to give it all the advantages of contrast and effect of which the subject may be susceptible. It is the possession of these qualifications which gives to the photographer the title to be called an artist. Without them, however dextrous in the sue of mechanical means, he is a mere caput mortuum—a body without a soul. No better illustration of what has been stated could perhaps be found than in a brief reference to the art as it existed some years ago in comparison with its present state, as shown by the Exhibition now opened. Many will still recollect the hideous productions which used to be denominated portraits. If the model happened to be a clergyman or professional man, wearing a white neckerchief, what a contrast did the portrait present? The face usually of the hue of blacklead, rested upon a pillow of snow, presenting a considerable resemblance to a subject often treated by the old masters—‘The Head of St. John on a Trencher.’ And then, from the defective character of the instruments employed, the form was much of a piece with the colour—eyes front, nose profile, mouth awry, was the general formula of a head, and as for character or expression, such qualities were never even aimed at. It may, no doubt, be said that such abortive attempts exist even at present, but now they are the exception, formerly they were the rule, and those who produce such works now have no more right to be termed photographers than the dauber of a signpost has to be called an artist. In landscape, the results were equally unsatisfactory. These old things, however, have passed away, and photographic portraits in truth, spirit, and character, in all the main essentials of art, rival the best productions of this or any other age. The beautiful works of Claudet, Tunny, Moffat, &c., ay, even of the amateurs L’Amy and Mitchel Innes, in the present Exhibition, will amply bear out our statement, while the able and complete landscapes of Mudd, Maxwell Lyte, Vernon Heath, Annan, and many others, are not less satisfactory and delightful. Many we know have by its early specimens been repelled from the study of photography. To all such we would say, Go and see the present Exhibition, and if you have any music in your soul, it cannot fail to be called forth in tones of pleasure and satisfaction. To the lover of art, of whatever kind, we would also give a similar advice. Photography has been designated the handmaid of art: and if it be so, the present Exhibition may not inaptly be termed the vestibule to that of the Royal Scottish academy just opened. Intending visitors to the latter should, therefore, lose no time in quickening their powers of observation, and increasing their capacity for enjoyment, by a study of the sun pictures, which afford a sure standard whereby to test, in many respects, the works of human genius. We may take this opportunity of stating that Mr. Robinson has assured us that his two beautiful photographs of a ‘Holiday in the Wood,’ and ‘The Top of the Hill,’ are both the production of last season; and we are now satisfied that our recollection was at fault in stating that the former had been seen previously by us. It was another work by Mr. Robinson which ran in our mind and caused the mistake.”
The Caledonian Mercury has the following remarks:--
“The picture which ahs received the greatest share of attention, is No. 65 in the catalogue, entitled ‘A Holiday in the Wood,’ the artist, who is likewise the exhibitor, being Mr. H. P. Robinson. It is the largest figure composition ever attempted in photography. A group of merry girls and boys are disporting themselves on a grass-knoll on the borders of a leafy grove. One is in eager pursuit of a butterfly; another crowns a companion with a wreath of summer flowers; a third laughs at the story or jest of one of the little group seated near in the long deep grass. Not one of the many figures represented has the slightest appearance of having sat for his or her portrait, and the grouping and arrangement are most artistic. The landscape is full of air and sunshine. The leaves and grass are instinct with rustling life, and the eye wanders with delight through the deep and transparent shadows of the grove, away to the distant gleams of the bright sky beyond.
“The Exhibition is particularly rich in studies of trees. No. 314, ‘A Lane Scene’ (collodion) is executed and exhibited by Mr. J. Dixon Piper, who contributes nine pictures, all worthy of high praise. The ‘Lane Scene’ is made of the simplest details—a few trees, through whose branches the bright sunshine falls on a woodland path leading to a picturesque fieldgate. The alternate light and shade, besides the fidelity of their rendering, assist in giving a deep perspective to the back ground which peeps from behind the bars of the sun-flecked gate. No. 298, ‘Study of Trees’ (collodion), and No. 391, ‘Chestnut Tree’ (collodion) , are by the same artist. The subjects are well chosen, and truthfully treated. The foliage of each of them is free from the woolly appearance sometimes seen in photographs of grass and trees. Each leaf is distinct, from the grass blades of the field up to those that
‘Dance so light, and dance so high,
On the topmost bough that looks up to the sky.’
Perhaps the finest realisation of forest scenery in the Exhibition is No. 291, ‘Pass of Killicrankie’ (col. albumen), by Mr. James Mudd, who is the artist and exhibitor of eighteen pictures, all of which are certain to become public favourites. In the above picture is represented a dense forest of pines, in the centre of which is embowered a cottage which breaks up the monotony of the countless trees, whose tops rise and fall in graceful undulations, until lost to sight behind the downward slope of the pass.
“Mr. J. H. Morgan is artist and exhibitor of six pictures. No. 376, ‘The Rising Mist,’ (collodion) is a perfect gem. In front is an ancient bridgeway, across which the sunshine, streaming through the tree tops, falls in many patches of light. Beyond the bridge a clump of trees is dimly seen through the mist. Sometimes similar misty effects are the results of imperfect development, but minute examination will prove that this is the veritable presentment of a summer haze.
“Mr. Vernon Heath, the artist and exhibitor of fourteen pictures, is particularly happy in the pleasing tint which pertains to all his photographs. Of these we prefer the four pictures numbering from 56 to 59 (collodion); the first, a view ‘On the Cornish Bank of the Tamar,’ is our favourite. In one or two pictures the foreground is rather confused and misty, and the water—but what league of lens and sensitized plate ever could catch the limpid transparency of leaping stream or rolling river—is (for want of a better word) cottony.
“Mr. T. Annan is the artist and exhibitor of fifteen pictures. No. 276, ‘Aberfoyle’ (collodion), is one of the most charming photographs we remember ever to have seen. It is balanced with due regard to artistic rule, and is in keeping with the subject and the season. In the centre of the picture is the Clachan, consisting of two cottages, immortalised by Sir Walter Scott. The rude masonry of the one and the white plastered walls or [sic] the other are given with minute distinctness and without glare. A heater-covered brae slopes upwards to the right of the Clachan. A peat-cart is introduced midway this ascent, and its white shafts and wickey-fashioned sides carry up the light in a graceful line to the patch of fleecy cloud which overhangs the strath. Across the middle distance runs a long range of bosky hills, and behind rises ‘broad Benlomond,’ in solitary grandeur. Another of this artist’s pictures, No. 280, ‘Inversnaid Waterfall,’ is, with the exception of want of sparkle in the foam, excellent; the lichened rocks and boulder stones, the unquiet pool beneath the cascade, and the calm water of the pool lower down, are true to nature. It is to be regretted that these pictures are not ‘untouched’ photographs.
“Dr. Walker, one of the Council of the Society, is the artist and exhibitor of two photographs, Nos. 304 and 305 (waxed paper), and twelve stereograms. Of the two pictures we prefer the latter, entitled, ‘On the Esk, Dalhousie.’ This river, the most picturesque of Lothian waters, is a peculiar favourite of painters and photographers, and its shady, sunny nooks, long ridges of sand and rock, lazy pools and wooded banks, are characteristically rendered in Dr. Walker’s picture. The tine is pleasing, and closely resembles that of Mr. Vernon Heath’s best photographs. In strong contrast to the foregoing landscapes is Mr. Maxwell Lyte’s, No. 296, ‘Cirque de Gavarini’ (collodion), a weird-like scene well fitted for the orgies of a Walpurgis revel. On either side of a deep forge, through which rushes an impetuous torrent, rise frowning precipices, and above and behind the glaciered and snowy Alps. We experience a sensation of chill and terror looking on these inaccessible cliffs, crowned with perpetual winter and clothed with drizzling mist. All these features and effects are forcibly given in this picture. No. 28, ‘The Falls of Terni,’ photographed by Mr. R. M’Pherson and exhibited by Mr. G. Thomson, ix very bold in treatment;’ but the picture is marred by the somber tint of the rocks, which gives the view the appearance of a cascade tumbling into a dark cavern. William Church, junr., contributes only one picture, No. 266, ‘On the Gareloch.’ Although the work of a non-professional, it is one of the best second-rate landscapes in the Exhibition. The shelving peb\\bly beach, laid bare by the tide, is extremely beautiful. The tone of the picture is however deficient in warmth, and the sun has been assisted in his ‘cloud painting.’ ”
1861: P News, March 22, vol. V, #133, p. 144:
Talk In The Studio [selection]
SINGULAR CAUSE OF FIRE—Mr. Negretti recently wrote to the Times, and described the curious origin of a fire occurring in the window of his shop, where philosophical instruments were kept. A large lens was suspended in the window, which, acting as a burning-glass, concentrated the sun’s rays on to the wood-work, which just happened to be in the focus of the lens, and set it on fire.
THE LATE DUCHESS OF KENT.—A photograph of her Grace the late Duchess of Kent is just in course of publication by M. Claudet, which will be the more highly valued from the fact that she rarely sat for a portrait to any photographic artist.
THE ROYAL PORTRAITS.—We understand that Mr. Mayall has now just completed an entire series of card photographs of the Royal Family. It is unfortunate that, owing to her failing health, the portrait of the late Duchess will not be included, as she was unable to keep an appointment made with Mr. Mayall for the purpose of a sitting.
BALLOON PHOTOGRAPHY.—At a recent meeting of the American Photographic Society, some new prints were exhibited from a negative taken during a balloon voyage, by Mr. Black of Boston. Our readers will remember that we described some former experiments of Mr. Black, in this direction, undertaken some months ago.
THE ECTOGRAPH.—Mr. Sutton recently showed us a very pretty positive photograph sent to him by one of his American correspondents. It bears the unexplained name of the Ectograph. Mr. Sutton was not at liberty to publish any details of the method of production; but we are engaged on some experiments for obtaining a similar class of pictures, which we will shortly publish in detail.
TUITION IN COLOURING.—It may be interesting to many of our readers who are anxious to add the charm of colour to their monochromous productions, to know that our esteemed contributor, Mr. A. H. Wall, has just opened a class for tuition in colouring photographs at 28, Old Bond Street.
1861: P News, March 22, vol. V, #133, p. 144:
To Correspondents: [selection]
Photography on Wood.—Mr. Bennett Lowe, whose communication on this subject we published last week, desires us to state that the allusion made in a recent article on this subject, to Mr. Langton having experimented in this direction for some years previous to 1854, was an error.
1861: P News, March 28, vol. V, #134, p. 156:
Talk In The Studio. [selection]
PHOTOGRAPHIC SOIREE.—The President and Council of the Photographic Society have just issued cards of invitation for a soiree to be held at King’s College, on the 4th of April next. It is expected that many of the photographs now exhibited in Pall mall will be taken to King’s College for the occasion.
PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION.—The Exhibition in Pall Mall closes on the 30th inst.
PHOTOGRAPHIC GROUPING.—The Athenæum has not a high opinion of the artistic powers of photographers generally. Speaking of a photograph of the officers of the 84th Regiment by Messrs. Agnew and Co., of Manchester, it says, “it is not only a good specimen of photography, but remarkable as illustrating the success of a common-sense course of proceeding in the matter of placing the sitters—generally the very point in which the operators fail most lamentably, for the simple reason that composition is one of the most subtle branches of an artist’s study—a quality, indeed, of which there have been fewer masters than any other. The operator has placed, or allowed them to place themselves, the whole body of the officers, over forty in number, the majority standing, a few seated in front. With the felicity that sometimes attends chromatic combinations in the kaleidoscope, they are perfectly grouped in simple masses.
PANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPHY.—The importance of producing pictures with a much wider angle of view than is usually obtained is beginning to excite much more attention than formerly. A correspondent last week describe ed a method of taking such views at two operations very ingeniously; but that, of course, could only be used where the error in perspective did not become striking. We saw a few days ago an exquisite picture taken by Mr. Wilson, of Aberdeen, with one of Mr. Dallmeyer’s triple lenses. This picture included the widest angle we have yet seen effected on a flat surface, the angle being nearly 70 degrees. The picture contained clouds, &c., very perfectly defined, and appear to have been instantaneous. There was also considerable depth of focus. There was, unquestionably, some falling off of light at the corners; but we understand the lense [sic] was used with its full aperture, a condition for which it is not usually intended. The rapidity of action which an instantaneous picture indicates, is certainly a feature we had not been led to anticipate in these lenses. We have not yet tried them ourselves, but hope to do so shortly. The sight of this picture certainly affords an additional inducement to do so.
PHOTOGRAPHY AND MORBID ANATOMY.—Mr. Geoffroy Saint-Hiliare has just presented to the French Academy of Science a photograph of a youth, fourteen years of age, who has a peculiar malformation, which has been called “péadelphe.” His right leg is divided into two limbs, both terminated by feet, which, however, point in opposite directions.
1861: P News, April 5, vol. V, #135, p. 168:
Talk In The Studio [selection]
PHOTOGRAPHIC GROUPING.—A paragraph we quoted from the Athenæum last week on this subject stated, that a recently executed group of the officers of the 84th regiment was photographed by Messrs. Agnew and Son; we find that the Athenæum has since corrected itself, and states that the photograph was by Mr. A. Brothers, of St. Ann’s Square, Manchester. We have also received a communication from Mr. Brothers on the subject, giving some interesting particulars. The group consists of forty-one persons with some statuary; the size of the picture was 48 in. by 21 in.; about forty-five printings were necessary to produce this group, and it occupied fifteen days in the month of December. All the merit of the grouping, which the Athenæum—unwilling to conceive as the result of artistic skill in the photographer—attributed to felicitous chance arrangement, like that which sometimes happens in the chromatic combinations of the kaleidoscope, is really due to the care and skill of Mr. Brothers. We are glad for the honour of the profession to be able to state this, and to add that we can, from the reduced copy of the group before us, fully endorse the high opinion of the grouping. Few things are more difficult in photography than the judicious grouping of nearly half-a-hundred persons, to the whole of whom a proper degree of prominence must be given as portraits. Where a number of the figures can be used at will, in any position or in any degree of subordination and prominence, for the mere purpose of producing the right balance of lines and chiaroscuro, the difficulty of composition re much simplified; but where forty-one portraits have to be produced, and the arrangement made with at least some degree of attention to rank and position in the sitters, the grouping requires judgment and skill of the highest order. We have occasionally seen some fine specimens of portraiture bearing the name of Mr. Brothers, although he has not been, that we remembe[r], a contributor to our Exhibition: We hope to see more of his work. We append an extract form the Manchester Guardian, noticing this group, because it is gratifying to photographers generally to have a proper recognition of the value of their art from “outside” critics: The artistic difficulties attending the representation of a large apartment full of gentlemen have been surmounted with a skill almost marvelous. Here are neither long lines of heads “all in a row,” nor, on the other hand, are the gallant 41 broken up into isolated groups of two or three, lacking all social cohesion. So ingeniously and artistically has their picture been composed, that one’s first impression is that Sir George Wetherall has just risen from his chair, and is about to communicate something of importance to the officers generally. There is no stiffness, no attitudinising; all , whether sitting or standing, are in natural and easy positions; and in this crowd of portraits it is obvious at a glance that they are a crowd of gentlemen. At the vestibule end of the apartment are two statues—one of them John Bell’s Victory, with outstretched arm, about to place her wreath on the brow of some hero. By a singular fortuity, it happened that the officer immediately beneath the chaplet is one worthy of being so honoured—being Major O’Brien, who endured, with a portion of the regiment, the privations and miseries of Lucknow, during the temporary triumph of the native mutineers. The portraits are wonderfully clear and sharp; and those in the background have the perspective duly regarded.
ART PATRONAGE.—We have pleasure in noticing that his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales bids fair to tread in the footsteps of his august father in becoming a patron of the fine arts. The number of photographic portraits his royal highness has already sat for, illustrate his interest in photography, and we understand that Sir John Watson Gordon is now engaged on an oil-painting, and Mr. John Steele the eminent sculptor, of Edinburgh, is also engaged on a portrait bust of the Prince.
PHOTOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE.—We notice that Mr. Sheddon, writing in an architectural contemporary, urges on the architectural profession the advantages to be gained by the adoption of photographs in place of the architectural perspective drawings now in use.
PHOTOGRAPHY AND WAR.—The editor of the American Journal, in commenting on the attachment of a photographer to each regiment in the French army, congratulates photographers on the fact that there will be little danger in active duties, for the photographer must be beyond the smell of gunpowder, or his chemicals will not work!
1861: P News, April 12, vol. V, #136, p. 169-170:
Soiree of the Photographic Society.
The soiree held in connection with the Photographic Society on the evening of Thursday, the 4th inst., in the large hall at King’s College, was a complete success. We are not aware how many cards of invitation were issued, but the attendance was great, not less, we imagine, than five hundred persons being present. These comprised, in addition to members and exhibitors, a large portion of the elite of literary, artistic, and scientific society, amongst whom we may mention specifically a large number of members of the Royal Society. There was also, as might be anticipated on such an occasion, a large attendance of beauty and fashion, adding their charms to those of science and art.
The large hall of the College was adorned by the majority of the photographs from Pall Mall, which, from the ample space afforded for judicious arrangement, and the excellent light, were seen, in many cases, to much greater advantage than to the original exhibition. There was, in addition to these, a large number of photographs which we had not before seen exhibited; amongst which we may name, as having especially come under our attention. Some of the exquisite specimens of coloured and uncoloured portraiture by Mr. T. R. Williams. Mr. Rejlander was present with a portfolio of his gems of photographic art, which enchained the attention of many, but which for their full enjoyment require a quiet hour without the distracting circumstances of a fashionable soiree. We may mention one of the pictures in Mr. Rejlander’s portfolio, which interested us much; it is a portrait of that gentleman himself in the costume generally worn by Garibaldi, and the likeness of the two heads, judging from the published portraits of the Italian patriot, is quite startling. A frame of photographs executed by Messrs. Spiller and Crookes, showing the various stages of the eclipse of last July, excited much attention. The photography was very perfect, and the series possessed a scientific interest not surpassed by anything in the room. A frame of instantaneous stereographs of Madeira also arrested our attention by their excellence, many of them being similar in subject to those of Wilson, of Aberdeen, to whose productions they were scarcely inferior. The name of the artist escapes us at this moment.
We must not omit to mention as exciting much admiration some most exquisite sculptures by Durham. A child nursing a dog, hushing it to sleep, is one of the most charming things we have seen; folding it tenderly to the bosom with one arm, the finger of the other hand is held up admonitorily, the title being “Go to sleep!” The whole pose, sentiment, and treatment are perfect. The fact that Mr. Durham is a photographer, and a member of the Council of the Society, will not lessen the interest of his sculptures in the eyes of photographers.
Several tables, displaying apparatus and chemicals, were exhibited; amongst the firms thuis represented we may mention Messrs. Murray and Heath, Horne and Thornthwaite, the London Stereoscopic Company, and Mr. Solomons. Some of the chemical exhibited by Messrs. Horne and Thornthwaite deserve mention as very fine specimens, beautifully prepared; a sample of chloride of gold excited much attention from the mode of its crystallization.
The stereotrope, or stereoscopic thaumatrope, invented by Mr. Shaw, was exhibited on one of the tables, and excited much attention. The object of this instrument—exhibiting stereoscopic objects in motion—has been before described in these pages. We could not examine it with minute attention in the room; but whilst, undoubtedly, very ingenious, it struck us that the effect was not very perfect. The objects exhibited were to show machinery in motion, and that motion struck us as jerky and unnatural, and not as suggestive of the calm, resistless power with which we are generally impressed on viewing the motion of machinery.
Refreshments were served in the library of the College. Altogether the arrangements were very perfect and successfully carried out, the result being that enjoyment and satisfaction were universally apparent. We repeat, the soiree was a great success.
1861: P News, April 12, vol. V, #136, p. 174-175:
Photographic Tourist. Photographic Rambles in Wales.—No. 2
By J. H. Jones.
Old associations, and the pleasure derived from excursions in the Principality in earlier days, were not without their influence in causing me to make the following excursions with the camera, by means of which I should be enabled to obtain pictures of such places and scenes, which ties of early friendship warm greeting, hospitality, and pleasant companionship, in my rambles through this beautiful country had endeared to my heart, combining, as the country does, so many features to interest the imagination and to allure the eye.
As I wander through this old birth-place of legends and fairy lore, famed alike for triumphs of the sword, and prizes of the lyre, to how many recollections does it give rise, as I look back to those bright days so indelibly impressed on memory’s tablets. Like the wearied pilgrim from some far off clime, I seem to renew my existence as the scenes familiar to my boyhood dawned upon me; again I breathe the freshness of the morning hour; while my mind is filled with pleasure, for I was once more amidst the wild blue hills of Cambria.
How often has a strange feeling of the fleeting tenure of all human enjoyments filled my heart, as I have bent my steps to some ancient castle or ruined abbey, which has been the retreat of those who have long since passed away.
Many an hour and many a day have I spent in my boyhood, exploring the wildest recesses of the old glens, and lakes, and hills. And where is the human being who has not, like myself, had reason to contemplate with sensations too strong for utterance, some well-remembered spot—who has not felt himself belonging to the past, even while by his anticipations he has turned tremblingly to catch the shadows of the mysterious future?
It is in the presence of the monuments of ages passed away---of a beloved country whose fame and splendour have vanished—that we can best sympathize with the transient show, and the sufferings of humanity, like the vanquished Roman of old, who sat down amidst the ruins of a fallen empire and wept.
In its monumental grandeur—with the foot of heroic nations everywhere upon its soil—no country presents objects of more peculiar and varied interest than Wales.
The prize of contending invaders, it was long the stronghold of genuine British valour, and maintained for upwards of twelve centuries unequal conflicts with nations far more powerful, yielding only on condition of being governed by a prince born in the country; hence, Edward the First’s policy in bringing his queen to Canarvon [sic] Castle, A.D., 1284, that his son might be born there; from which time down to the present have not the sons of our English sovereigns assumed the name of Prince of Wales, as the proudest of their titles?
Nothing more clearly proves the importance attached to its possession than this simple historical fact. Nor does the voluminous character of the works devoted to its illustration tend to diminish the curiosity with which we retrace its annals, call to mind its former power, and now its great natural advantages, its increasing usefulness and prosperity. No traveller enters the principality without being surprised with evidences of its singular history, its numerous antiquities being no less striking than its splendid and romantic scenery.
The area of successive and fierce struggles—commencing with the dawn of the Christian era—here met the Roman, the Saxon, the Dane, the Norman, and all these blending in the resistless English, Cambria still continued to bear a conspicuous part in the grand drama of British power and greatness.
The reduction of the native inhabitants and princes, in their mountain fastnesses, required the lapse of ages, and the strength of combined nations to accomplish. These persevering efforts to vindicate their freedom, gave rise to extraordinary exploits, which, terrible as is the picture of Cambrian wars, powerfully appeal to the imagination and sympathies of the reader. No subject, indeed, could be mentioned which better repays the enquiries of the learned or the curious than the earlier portions of Welsh history.
The scenery of Wales is worthy of its heartstirring associations, it comprises the beautiful and sublime to as great a degree as an equal extent of territory in any country in Europe. Lofty mountains bleak and bare; deep and verdurous valleys; babbling and meandering brooks, shaded by venerable trees beaded with moss, and “standing like Druids old with voices sad and prophetic,” or like the native bards with beards that rest on their bosoms.
The scenes I am about to depict will, I hope, prove interesting to all, and be the means of causing some of my photographic brethren to visit them; and if they derive as much pleasure as I do in my rambles through the country, I shall feel amply compensated for these few hints for their guidance whilst in search of the picturesque among the romantic and delightful scenery of Wales.
Some few months ago I had the pleasure of writing a description of the vale of Neath,* (*See Photographic news, No. 84 &c., Vols. iii. And iv.) perhaps, therefore, it will not be amiss if I take the sister valley as the starting point on this occasion.
Swansea, or, as it is in Welsh, Abertawe, the most important port in the Principality, is happily situated between two hills, on the western side of the river Tawe, and has been much improved and greatly extended during the last twenty years. The first object of interest is the castle, which I am sorry to say is not so nicely situated as to be “come-at-able” for the gentleman of the tripod; but the following places may be selected from as giving very good views of it. The clock tower may be taken from Castle Street, or Castle Square, but the principal view, and, indeed, the most comprehensive, is to be had from the Strand; it is from here that the very elegant open parapet of arches is seen to advantage, and, although the houses in the foreground intrude themselves, still they do not look amiss, as they possess that old tumble-down appearance which harmonizes so well with the castle itself. Several excellent views of the town may also be had from the top of the tower. This castle was built by Henry Beaumont, Earl of Warwick, who, in the year 1099, came into Gower against the sons of Caradoc-ap-Iestyn, and won from them large portions of their territories; he also built several other castles, which I shall mention perhaps in some other future article. By these precautions he fortified himself in this country; and, for his further security, introduced Saxons, as the Welsh historians, ancient and modern, so inveterately denominate the English, to whom he gave lands. Of all the oppressions exercised by the Normans those of Henry Beaumont in Gower were the most intolerable.
In the year 1113, Griffith-ap-Rees, Prince of South Wales, laid siege to the castle and burned everything about it—but he could not make himself master of the fortress: from this time to the year 1648, the time that Cromwell marched here, it was the scene of many contentions, and passed through various hands. In the reign of Edward the Fourth, the heiress of William Herbert, Earl of Huntingdon, the then possessor, married Sir Charles Somerset, an ancestor of the Beaufort family, in which it is still vested.
St. Mary’s church is a structure more worthy the visit of the antiquarian than the photographer, as it is built in the worst taste of the last century; but it has several relics of the old church, which “fell down” in 1739.
The Holy Trinity church, a recent structure, in the non-descript style of architecture, makes a very pleasing picture; several very nice pictures may also be had of the interior.
The other public buildings of the town, which give pictures more or less pleasing, are as follows:--the Wesleyan chapel, the finest in Wales, should be taken from College Street. The Roman Catholic chapel, in the Gothic style, dedicated to St. David, from Rutland Street; and the Unitarian chapel, in the Tudor style, from the High Street. The “Guildhall,” which stands near the docks, makes a charming picture; it was erected in 1827, and was considerably enlarged and improved in 1849. It is now the finest building in the Principality. The south-west and east fronts are rich elevations in the Corinthian order of the Palladian school.
The Royal Institution is the next object of interest, the principal front, which is of Bath stone, extends 100 feet from east to west, in the centre of which is a prostyle portico of four fluted Ionic columns, which order is continued throughout the building; it contains a large collection of antiquities, &c., which are well worth a visit; the library contains the largest collection of books relating to Wales extant. The next and last object worth photographing in the town is the new post-office, which is a very large and handsome structure. A short walk over the bridge which crosses the river Tawe, will bring you to the Danygraig Cemetery, where several very pleasing pictures may be made of the church, the chapel, and the lodge on the grounds; also a very good view of the Port Tenant Copper Works, with the entrance to the harbour and the canal. Just behind the cemetery, but at the top of Killvey Hill, there is the ruin of an old windmill, which, together with a thatched cottage near it, forms a very pleasing picture, especially if the view be taken from the north-east side, the town is seen through two apertures at the base of the hill. Again, another walk to the top of Clifton Hill, on the western side of the river, will give two admirable views of the town, also a good picture of the Grammar School, and in looking to the north-east a beautiful view of the valley, stretching far away in the distance, with the numerous works scattered here and there, give it an appearance of life and activity which adds considerably to the interest of the scene. But I must not stand gazing at this scene of beauty, when we ought to have been on our way to this El Dorado, so if my reader will now accompany me, I will lead him where nature has decked herself in the most charning [sic] robes; where rocks, woods, and glens, are gathered together, and vie with each other in attracting the admiring gaze of the delighted and enchanted tourist. (To be continued.)
1861: P News, April 12, vol. V, #136, p. 180:
Talk In The Studio [selection]
PHOTOGRAPHY ON THE RAILWAY.—The Scientific American states, that on the Chicago and Milwaukie [sic] Railway a very beautiful application of the photographic art is used on the “season passes” and “commutation tickets” to prevent their illegal transfer. When a person applies for a season pass or ticket, he incloses his photograph taken on a small gummed label, and this is pasted on the card which he receives. The conductor of the train can thus see at a glance whether the bearer of a pass or ticket carries the evidence of “the right man being in the right place.”
GIGANTIC NEGATIVES.—The American Journal of Photography states that Mr. Whipple, of Boston, has been taking glass negatives five feet by four feet in size.
PHOTOGRAPHNG STATE DOCUMENTS.—Mr. Gladstone, a short time ago, consulted Sir Henry James on the possibility of copying out ancient records by means of his process of photozincography. A small deed of the date of Edward the First was copied and printed, with so much success, and at so trifling an expense, that Lord Herbert of Lea, the Secretary-at-War, ordered the impressions to be bound up with the yearly report on the Ordnance Survey. Thus encouraged, Sir Henry James got permission from the Lords of the Treasury to copy that part of the Domesday Book which relates to Cornwall, as an experiment. He has now achieved this commission, with a result which should certainly encourage the further prosecution of the design, county by county, as appears to have been originally proposed by him. Those who care to have no more of Domesday Book on their shelves than relates to their own shire, can buy the local part. Those who wish to have the whole can bind the several parts into volumes. The work is to be published at cost price, or nearly so.—Athenæum.
1861: P News, April 19, vol. V, #137, p. 189-190:
Photographic Tourist. Photographic Rambles in Wales.—No. 2* (*Continued from p. 175.) By J. H. Jones.
In my photographic rambles, I much prefer—when time will allow—to walk, for the pedestrian has a better chance of meeting with those wayside gems, which, when faithfully transcribed by means of our truthful and beautiful art, go so far to render our portfolios attractive. But I may state for the benefit of those who have not the time or inclination to walk, that there are several modes of conveyance to the head of the valley.
The first object of interest to the tourist in ascending the Vale of the Tawe, is the Copper Works, and should the day prove clear, with a south-westerly wind, some excellent pictures may be obtained of them from the turnpike road, the canal side, or the slag banks; the appearance of copper as well as iron works is of course the most impressive at night; and the Swansea Valley at this point forms no bad representation of the infernal regions, for the smell aids the eye; large groups of odd-looking chimneys and rickety flues emit sulphurous arsenical smoke, or pure flame, a dense canopy overhangs the scene for several miles, rendered more horrible by a peculiar glare. This valley, from Swansea to Morristown, presented, as I wended my way upwards, a scene of busy industry, for here are congregated, within the space of four miles, no less than fifteen works for the manufacture of silver, copper, iron, tin, spelter and chemicals, besides the numerous collieries; the quantity of coal required for these works alone is enormous; and when it is borne in mind that the back freights of the vast fleets that arrive at the port is coal, some idea of the extent of the trade may be entertained.
Stopping occasionally to obtain a view of the largest of the works, here and there, and turning aside to the banks of the river to obtain others, the most prominent of which is the Landore viaduct, after a few hours I found myself at Morristown; there is nothing of interest here, except the Libanus Chapel, but it is so placed that I could not get a picture of it. Thus far the beautiful features of nature are completely defaced by the smoke of the works, and the ranges of unsightly buildings in every direction.
The vale, in its course upwards from Morristown to Henneuadd in Brecknockshire, is continually losing something of its useful, but artificial deformity. Every step I gave from here presented some fresh subject of admiration to my eye; in fact, I may say, that it would be an endless matter for me to describe everything which presented itself. I shall, therefore, only speak of those views, which deserve especial notice, but to those who may follow in my footsteps I can promise a rich fund of the best materials for forming a perfect landscape, on condition that they will turn aside occasionally from the turnpike-road to the canal (which run in many places side by side), which will afford a most agreeable deviation, barring the mud and dirt, of which there is plenty. Indeed, if we would but accustom ourselves to a tenth part of these inconveniences, which we are eager to encounter, swelling, as they do into real difficulties, on a foreign tour, we should entertain higher and more just notions of what variety, grandeur, and richness, displayed by our home scenery; to those who compare it candidly, either with their own observations, or the best accounts of continental landscape.
It was remarked by Wilson—whose authority is not to be disregarded on his own subject—“that a young artist might find, in some part or other of this Island, everything he could attain by going abroad, or, indeed, that he could possibly want to complete his studies, and form his style, excepting what is distinctively characterized as an Italian sky; and it may be much doubt ed whether English painters are not sometimes induced to show that they have traveled at the expense of propriety.” We not unfrequently meet with men of respectable talents and sound judgment in the main, who talk about uniting the brilliancy of Claude with the grandeur and sublimity of Poussin. But surely such a combination of properties is unattainable in practice, and were it not so, it would confound all character, and consequently ought rather to be avoided.
We never see such heterogeneous mixtures in nature, which brings together such things as may harmonise and cooperate with each other; not such as must be eternally at variance. Nor can it be said with truth that there is less beauty in an English than an Italian sky, since each will be found to suit best with the general complexion of its respective scenery. When, therefore, it is considered, that an English student generally intends to exercise his talents on his own country, and for his own countrymen, a foreign education seems not so desirable as it was before we had respectable schools of native growth.
A habit of constantly observing the works of creation as they really exist, rather than as they are set down in treatises or practical specimens of masters, will teach him to vary his style, when he takes his subject from a different climate; but there is no real excellence is sketching a sky, under which vegetation must languish and be dried up; over a landscape whose verdure could only have been preserved in its luxuriance by the frequent distillations of a surcharged atmosphere.
But perhaps some of my readers will say, What has all this to do with photography? and to them I would say that it has much to do with it, and if not with photography it has much to do with photographers; for how many of my photographic readers are there, who would not prefer a tour through France or Italy, or elsewhere, in preference to a roué through the land of their birth? If the public require foreign views, there are surely enough of foreign artists to supply them, therefore, let every photographer look around him, and he will find sufficient work for his camera at less expense than he would at any other place away from his English home; as a proof of this, look at the photographs of English scenery by Fenton, Lake Price, Sedgfield, Bedford, and many others of our justly celebrated photographers; where will you find views to equal or surpass them in point of artistic beauty, or solemn grandeur? There are places, I will not deny, which are more attractive in point of interest connected with historical fact, but will these repay the labour and expense of getting them.
I will not digress any further at present, for fear of being tedious, and thereby damp the ardour of my kind readers. So next week I will once more return to the subject in hand. (To be continued.)
1861: P News, April 19, vol. V, #137, p. 192:
Talk In The Studio [selection]
LIGHT IN DARK PLACES.—Our readers are doubtless aware that, until recently, photography was banned in the greater part of Italy as an unhallowed thing. A new era in that as well as many other things is inaugurated under the reign of Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy, and photography is received under especial favour of government. M. Dallmeyer has just received a large order from the new Italian government for lenses, amongst which are two of his triple achromatic combinations, one of 40 inches focus, to take pictures 30 in. by 24 in., and another to take pictures 15 in. by 12 in., and also a portrait combination for pictures 12 in. by 10 in. It is highly gratifying to record the recognition these new lenses are receiving on the continent.
LECTURE ON PHOTOGRAPHY.—Lectures on photography seem for some years to have almost entirely ceased. We are glad to find some hope of their revival in the hands of a gentleman so accomplished as Mr. Vernon Heath, who lectured at Aylesbury, in the Mechanics’ Institute, on the 27th ult., the Rev. J. B. Reade, the first photographer in this country, presided. The lecture was illustrated by some interesting experiments. By means of the brilliant light of phosphorus burnt in a jar of oxygen, the work “light” was printed on sensitive paper, and a negative of a bust taken by the aid of the same light.
STEREOSCOPIC EXCHANGE CLUB.—We regret to state that we have received several letters complaining of the inferiority of many of the prints forwarded as exchanges by some members of the Stereo Exchange Club. One correspondent states that, out of twelve dozen he has received, he cannot select two dozen good pictures; and that in many cases the worthlessness of those received arises out of downright carelessness, as not less than fifteen have been mounted in the wrong position, the left picture on the right side. He adds the significant fact, that most of the bad pictures are by some dry process; whilst the balance of good results are by the wet process. Another correspondendent [sic] sends us up specimens of what he has received, some of which are simply disgraceful, and are the worst we have ever seen. We were fully prepared to expect that some poor prints would be sent out in this way, and that possibly in good faith, as some persons, beginners especially, are wonderfully blind to the defects of their own pictures; but some of these are so bad as to admit of no excuse. We really hope that to prevent the entire cessation of this pleasant interchange, members will act with consideration and fairness, and send out nothing in any degree inferior to those which they hope to receive. If, however, the suggestion be acted on which we made sometime ago, we think much disappointment might be prevented. If members in commencing to exchange with any new member begin with one or two copies, and only proceed further on finding that the exchange is likely to be satisfactory, no great harm can at any time be done. This, we think, would prevent disappointment more effectually than any classification which we could make, and would be a much less invidious proceeding.
1861: P News, April 26, vol. V, #138, p.204:
Talk In The Studio [selection]
PHOTOGRAPHY AND ART.—Mr. Samuel Fry has recently been engaged in taking a series of negatives, 25 inches by 18 inches, and 10 inches by 8 inches, of the interior of the Great Western station, engines, carriages, &c., for Mr. Frith, as aids to the production of his great painting “Life at a Railway Station.” Such is the value of the photograph in aiding the artist’s work, that he wonders now however they did without them!
STEREO EXCHANGE CLUB.—A correspondent writes on this subject:--Regarding the Stereo Exchange Club—suppose A. be dissatisfied with B.’s picture in return for his, let both be sent to you, and then say, “We consider Mr. B.’s stereograph ‘Grazing Cattle’ decidedly good (or bad, as the case may be), and a fair (or by no means a fair) exchange for Mr. A.’s ‘Scene on the Wye.’ ”
A NEW APPLICATION OF PHOTOGRAPHY.—A circumstance recently occurred showing the great business utility of the modern discoveries of Photography and the Electric Telegraph. The Count de Penafiel left Lisbon for Paris, carrying with him an order for 70,000 francs; this, however, he unfortunately lost on the road, and telegraphed the same to his banker at Lisbon; that gentleman at once telegraphed to Paris stopping payment of the order, but sent by post the portrait of the Count de Penafiel, stating that the amount might be paid to him when he presented himself.--Times
1861: P News, May 3, vol. V, #139, p. 205:
Photographic exhibition at Birmingham.
We beg to call the attention of our readers to an announcement in our advertisement columns, of the Exhibition in connection with the Birmingham Photographic Society, to be held at Aston Hall, commencing towards the close of the month. The town of Birmingham is largely identified in many respects with photography, and its Society numbers some of the best photographers in the kingdom. The medals to be awarded, of which there are six, embrace a new feature, we observe, two of them being devoted to the productions of the solar camera. It is somewhat unfortunate that the notice should be so short, we apprehend it arises from cases beyond control. We trust, however, that intending exhibitors will bear in mind the Spartan’s motto—“If your sword be short, add a step to it,”—and make up in exertion what is lacking in time. We hope the Exhibition will be in all respects a successful one.
The following are the published regulations:--
The Exhibition of the Society will be opened on Monday, May 27, 18761, and will continue open three or four months.
All descriptions of photographs will be admissible, together with apparatus, &c., used in producing the same, or in any way connected with the art, as also photographic engravings, &c.
It is recommended that all pictures should be framed and glazed, and the margin of the mounting-board should not exceed three inches in width; but unframed prints will be allowed.
In the case of pictures of smaller size than 9 by 7 it is desirable that four or more should be placed in one frame but no frame must exceed twelve square feet in area.
Each picture, or frame of pictures, must have the name and address of the artist and exhibitor distinctly written upon the back, together with number, which number must correspond with a list of the subjects to be inclosed with them, specifying the particular process, whether calotype, waxed-paper, or the different varieties of collodion by which the negatives were taken from which the pictures were produced, and, if for sale, the price.
Touched or coloured prints must be accompanied by an untouched copy.
The Society will award three silver and three bronze medals for the best pictures in the Exhibition. One silver for the best portrait or group; one bronze for the second best. One silver medal for the best photograph of any other subject, landscape, composition, or otherwise; one bronze medal for the second best. And one silver medal for the best photograph from the solar camera. The whole of the above to be pure untouched photographs. A bronze medal will also be awarded to the best coloured photograph from the solar camera.
The solar pictures to be of not less size than 21 by 17, and unless taken in great Britain will be disqualified from competing for the prizes.
All works intended for exhibition must be delivered at Aston Hall, near Birmingham, not later than the 20th day of May next.
Any picture received after the 28th day of May will be ineligible for competition for the medals.
A commission of 10 per cent. will be charged on all sales made during the Exhibition.
A list of the photographs sent must be inclosed with them, and a duplicate forwarded to the Hon. Sec., together with such other particulars of process as the exhibitor may wish to communicate.
At the close of the Exhibition the pictures remaining unsold, or not for sale, will be carefully packed and returned to the owners.
1861: P News, May 3, vol. V, #139, p. 212-213:
Photographic Tourist. Photographic Rambles in Wales.—No. 2* (*Continued from p. 190.) By J. H. Jones.
After leaving Morristown behind me for about half a mile, at a sudden curve in the road I came to a group of thatched cottages, which appeared so piquantly beautiful in their rustic simplicity, that I must,. Perforce, stop to take a view of them; the ivy climbing up in all direction over them, and then spreading over the roofs, added a charm not often to be met with.
Crossing the canal at this point, which was near a colliery, I walked along the towing-path for a short distance, and stopped again to take a view of the canal, which at this point presented a picture in which the light and shade were so harmoniously blended, that it surpassed anything I had ever met with on a canal side; the stunted trees on the western side drooping downwards to the water, to which several coal barges were moored, formed the foreground, while the middle was occupied by a small ivy-covered bridge, through the arch of which another bridge could be seen in the distance, while the light streaming through the trees on the side of the towing-path threw the light and shade about in a manner which beggars description. There are several other nice little “bits’ to be had between this and the second bridge mentioned above, at which point I regained the road.
Following this road I passed Fountain’s hall, which has some pretensions to architectural beauty; the road is lined for a considerable distance with trees, which form a very agreeable shade from the heat of the sun, and at the same time gives it a very rural aspect: passing onwards, I came to a village called Buildings, near which, on the right hand side, by a gate, there is a delightful scene; right below me was the canal, and by the side of it was the river Tawe, which, rolling over its pebbly bed, sent up such a murmuring, babbling noise, which struck most musically on the ear, while the cottages and farms dotted here and there the lovely green meadows, in which cattle and sheep were quietly grazing, and the hills rising up in stately grandeur and stretching far away in the distance, formed the background, and made the scene at once picturesque and beautiful. Soon after leaving this village I found myself at Clydach, and just after passing the reading-rooms, and about the centre of the village, a charming view presented itself ; immediately in front of me was a cluster of cottages, built on the sloping banks of the river, while a little to the right was a rustic wooden bridge thrown across the canal, and to the left a small bridge across a minor stream, and in the centre a large three-arched stone bridge, at the back of which were the ruins of an old mill, while the water coming down from the hills at the back rushed foaming along over its rocky course; Clydach Church, a little further on, is rather, a pretty one for a village church, but being very modern I did not stop to photograph it. From this point until I reached the outskirts of Pontardawe, my walk lay through a perfect avenue of trees, and tastefully cut hedgerows. Near the Mason’s Arms, on the right-hand side of the Pontardawe road, as I entered the village, there was a gap in the hedge, and not wishing to lose anything that could be seen, I entered it; and here I found another view which appeared so very nice in the declining sun that I determined to secure it; the field in which I found myself sloped gradually to the canal side, which was strewed here and there with barges, whose long, black, slender forms cut sharp and clear the bosom of the canal they rested on, while below them on the marsh between the canal and river, a tinworks, with its numerous flues, and behind them the river, which was spanned by a graceful bridge of one arch, near which stood an old elm-tree, whose giant form seemed like the “spirit of the scene,” while, beyond the bridge, the flat, green fields vanished away in the distance; and on the opposite bank to where I stood was the Pontardawe railway and station, and above that the village of Alltwen, whose numerous white cottages speckled the hill, like a field of daisies; as soon as my plate was exposed I passed on, entered the village, and looked about me for quarters for the night. Early the next morning I was out in search of the local beauties of the village, and the first object which attracted my attention was the church (Eglwys Newydd) whose tall and graceful spire glittered in the early morning sun; it is so placed that it can be seen from any point in the village; I, therefore took three distinct views of it, the first from a lane on the east side, the second from the banks of the canal; in this view I had what some would call a perfect medley, first, view I had what some would call a perfect medley, first there was the canal, then a bridge, a considerable portion of the village, and then the church itself on an eminence behind; the third view was from a field on the west side; as soon as this was finished I made a closer inspection if it, the work on the exterior surpasses anything of the kind to be met with in a country village; the interior gives several most beautiful pictures; as I entered the doorway, which is directly under the belfry, and turned to my left, I was in raptures, the beautiful pillars springing from the tessellated aisles, and running up for forty or fifty feet, and then uniting in gracefully carved arches, while at the far end of the church was the chaste and tastefully carved pulpit, reading-desk, and font, all in white stone, and further on an exquisitely beautiful screen on the same material in front of the choir, lit up here and there by the sun streaming in through the western windows; only one thing is wanting to complete the beauty of this graceful church, and that is the insertion of the painted window in the chancel, which, from what I have heard, will soon be done. After making pictures of all I wished here, I left this sacred edifice and returned to Nature’s own temple, whose floor is the green and beautiful earth, whose pillars are trees, whose roof is the blue and glorious sky, and whose choristers are the birds, whose tuneful throats sing praises to Him who made all things beautiful.
Turning up a lane opposite the Cross Inn, I soon came to Cwm Dû (Black Glen). Turning aside from the lane proper I followed one which descended to the brink of the stream, a tributary of the Tawe; here indeed was a pretty scene, a small waterfall some two hundred yards from where I stood appeared, owing to a curve in the stream above the fall, to rush out of the foliage which clothed the banks of the dingle, and coming down with many a twirl and eddy, ran on its never ceasing course; with here and there a tree covered with moss bending over the water, whose branches seemed like giant arms, longing to embrace the stream, which laved its roots, and supplied it with nourishment; a cottage built on a jutting piece of rock some forty or fifty feet high, seemed like the palace of the fairy who presided over the scene below; while in the background, the waving corn might be seen clothing the hills to their very top. After impressing the image of this view on a plate, I retraced my steps until I reached the point of my deviation from the lane.
I now ascended the hill for a mile or so, until after passing Gellyonen House, I came to a style, crossing which, I found myself in a narrow pathway, which led in a zigzag direction to the bottom of the glen, another portion of the one mentioned above, which cannot be reached by any other way; I stopped occasionally on my way down to photograph some studies of fern and bits of rock, which appeared here and there, so unusually beautiful in the light which streamed through the foliage; that they were really irresistible. There is one view, about half way to the bottom, which particularly struck me as interesting, through an opening in the trees, which appeared to be made on purpose, a stream of water rushed over the rock which formed the other side of the dingle, which being rather steep made a dingle being of a diversified character, added to, rather than detracted from its merit.
When I gained the bottom of the footpath, I found myself on a bed of pebbles, with here and there an immense boulder, which had, no doubt, in years gone by, been torn from the wall of rock which faced me, where I stood, but which was now, by the continual force of the stream, rounded off, and appeared like huge pebbles, the wall of rock from which they had been torn as now hung with creeping plants from whose pendant branches water was continually dropping. Turning a little to the right, the stream was seen to come round a curve in the glen, with such force, as plainly to the eye, as the noise did to the ear, that a fall of some magnitude was close at hand. The scene from where I stood was indeed one of more than ordinary beauty; the dingle on both sides, was covered with trees, among the foliage of which the birds sang, and the lively squirrel gamboled and frisked, in the radiant sun, while the water foaming and tossing below, occasionally dashed the spray over the large masses of stone in its bed, like mimic waves.
It was with difficulty that I could tear myself away from this spot, but making my way forward and upward, for the stream could not be forded, I soon found myself on a projection which overlooked the fall, which threw itself over a rock some twenty feet in depth; but it is so placed, that I could not make a satisfactory picture of it, owing to my being on a level with the top of it, and not about thirty feet form it: this I very much regretted, because the surrounding scenery would have made a picture of especial beauty.
After exploring the stream for a considerable distance above the fall, and selecting such “bits” as particularly struck my fancy, I turned my face backwards, and arrived in the village just as the sun was gilding the top of the church spire. (To be continued)
1861: P News, May 10, vol. V, #140, p. 228:
Talk In The Studio [selection]
PHOTOGRAPHS OF EMINENT MEN.—We have received from Mr. Mayall the first of a monthly series of portraits of eminent men which he is about to issue. The portrait before us is that of Lord Derby, and is an exquisite specimen of photography as well as a fine work of art. It is in many respects, in our opinion, incomparably the best of the numerous illustrious photographic portraits which have from time to time been issued. The lighting and general arrangement of accessories tends to produce very fine chiaroscuro, whilst the delicacy and perfect modeling of the features and head generally leaves nothing to be desired. Lord Brougham and others will, we understand, follow in succession.
ART PHOTOGRAPHY.—We have received from Mr. Rejlander two exceedingly fine art photographs. The first is a portrait of the artist himself dressed in Garibaldian costume, the effect of the red shirt being unmistakeable in the monochrome of the photograph. The features and general effect of the head very much resemble the portraits of the Italian hero; but the expression is more that of the refined and imaginative artist than the soldier. It entirely satisfies us as to what a portrait of Rejlander should be, and is consequently placed amongst the most cherished gems of our portfolio. The other is entitled “The Evening Sun,” and represents a partially draped female figure with hand shading the eyes gazing towards the horizon at the declining luminary. The liens of the figure are very fine, and the folds of the drapery quite statuesque. The whole picture is full of poetry.
PHOTOGRAPHY FOR BOOK ILLUSTRATION.—We always notice with pleasure the progressive advance in the sue of photographs for book illustration. Unfortunately it has not unfrequently happened that when prints have had to be rapidly multiplied, they have been of such a character as to afford very little encouragement to those most concerned in the matter, commercially. A signal exception to this has, however, just come under our notice. A cheap edition, just issued, of Wilkie Collins’ powerful novel, the “Woman in White,” is embellished with a photographic portrait of the author. The photograph is by Messrs. Cundall and Downes, and reflects credit at once on the art and artists. Several from which have seen from different negatives, although varying in character, are all good. The head is one, which from the impress of character, at once powerful and imaginative, will satisfy the reader ass well becoming their notions of the author of one of the most exciting novels of the day.
PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDIO BURNT.—The extensive establishment of Mr. Steel, photographer, was destroyed, a few days ago by fire. The gallery, laboratory, and printing rooms were all burnt, together with upwards of a thousand negatives. The fire originated in a neighbouring building. Mr. Steel was, unfortunately, not insured.
ART TREASURES.—The Athenæum referring to the recent art purchases in Italy for the South Kensington Museum, refers to the value of photography as an aid in popularizing art. The Campagna acquisitions consist of marbles and terra-cottas, statues, bas-reliefs, groups, &c., almost entirely of the great epoch of the Revival of art, the Italian “Quattro-cento.” There is no doubt that the novelty alone, in this country, of original works of such world-renowned artists as Michael Angelo, Donatello, Ghiberti, Verocchio, Jacopo della Guercia, Rosellino, Desiderio di Settignano, &c., will excite at least, the curiosity of the general public, whilst artists and connoisseurs are likely to be impatient to see and judge for themselves of their merit and importance; it is, therefore, tantalizing to have to await the slow progress of bricks and mortar. The delay, however, appears unavoidable, as for a long time there has been no space at command at Kensington for the exhibition of previous acquisitions of a similar nature. The Science and Art Department are, however, doing their best to atone for the delay in causing the collection to be reproduced by means of photography, so that the public will at least be able, very shortly, to form an estimate of it, through the medium of that invaluable handmaid to Art.
1861: P News, May 17, vol. V, #141, p. 240:
Talk In The Studio [selection]
PHOTOGRAPHY AND PHYSIOLOGY.—An important scientific work is in course of issue in Munich—a Photographic Atlas of the Nervous System of the Human Frame. The photographs are taken by Herr Albert, the Court photographer, and are done with clearness and precision. There is an explanation published with the plates, in German and French, by a Professor of Anatomy; and the work is to be completed in ten parts, each part containing five plates, and costing about 11s. 6d. The first part is published, containing the nerves of the head, which stad out as plain and as fine as a spider’s web in the photograph. The importance of such a work for students of anatomy can hardly be exaggerated; and, as I believe nothing of the kind is already in existence, it is a great honour to Munich to have led the way.—Athenæum.
PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE WITNESS BOX.—Photography has frequently been called upon as an unerring witness in law cases, both civil and criminal. A case which recently came under our notice called into exercise an amount of decision and promptness in emergency that rather reminds one of a clever piece of military strategy than anything else. A case for compensation was under the attention of the Vice Chancellor’s Court, in which a gentleman requested that his little rural paradise, a romantic and beautiful retreat from a noisy and irreverent world, had its sacred quiet invaded and destroyed by the immediate proximity of a railway. This retreat, which was, we understand, little better than a barn, was painted in glowing colours in the affidavit of the plaintiff. To show the real facts, defendants were anxious to have a photograph of the cottage to bring before the Court; but the plaintiff had stoutly resisted this, and kept watch that no photograph should be taken. At the last moment, the night before the case came on for hearing, application was made to one of our correspondents to take a view by strategy, and have a print in Court by ten o’clock the following morning. Nothing daunted by the difficulties and short time, he undertook the commission. The next morning was perhaps the most anti-photographic of the whole year: fog, snow, and rain. He arrived at the spot, some miles from his home, at seven in the morning, when it was barely light. During the night a couple of “navvies’ placed at his disposal by the railway Company, Had erected a rude platform to allow the camera to peep over a high wall, with which the house was surrounded. By his direction they tied back such boughs of trees as were in the way, and all was got into order whilst the unsuspecting plaintiff and his household slept. Everything was made to look as orderly as possible again, and a Fothergill plate being placed in the camera was exposed for one hour. It was then developed in a tent on the spot and found all right, and was dried and varnished. A sheet of paper was then sensitized in the tent, and placed with the negative in the printing frame, which was tied upon the top of the cab to print, and the driver told to drive to court like mad some half-dozen miles off. On reaching court the print was sufficiently done, and was mounted by means of four wafers on a piece of card-board, and curtained with a piece of yellow paper, being unfixed. It was ready we believe just two minutes before the time. Its effect in the court we did not hear, but it ought to have been successful, simply as a reward to promptness and skill.
1861: P News, vol. V, #143, p. 264:
Talk In The Studio. [selection]
NORTH LONDON PHOTOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATION.--The last meeting, before the summer recess, was held on Wednesday evening. A camera arranged with an especial view ot the copying of engravings, was described by Mr. Barnard, and a paper on mounting stereographs was read by Mr. Shadbolt. A detailed report will appear in our next.
PHOTOGRAPHY ON WOOD. The London Review has an interesting article on this subject, which does not, however, explain any process. A specimen engraving by Mr. Thomas Bolton is given, which is very effective. The subject is “Christ s the good Shepherd,” being a copy of a stained-glass window recently erected in Abington Church, Northampton.
INSTANTANEOUS PHOTOGRAPHS.—We have received some specimens of a beautiful series of instantaneous photographs of Paris, just issued by the London Stereoscopic Company, executed by their talented artist, Mr. W. England. They, for the most part, represent scenes in the crowded streets of the French capital in the midst of its busy traffic. In many of them the conditions of complete instantaneity are perfectly fulfilled, for we have walking figures with foot uplifted beautifully rendered, and rapidly driven equipages produced without blurring. In addition to their interest as instantaneous pictures of scenes so full of subject as Parisian streets, they are harmonious photographs without the common enormity of white skies. There is in all cases a tone over the skies, and in some the natural clouds. The only point at all at fault, is the lens, which ahs not always given perfect sharpness and illumination to the edges, the results, we presume, of the large aperture necessary to instantaneous pictures.
1861: P News, June 7, vol. V, #144, p. 276*: [*this is the first of two pages #d “276”]
Talk In The Studio [selection]
PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE EXHIBITION OF 1862.—The London Review, speaking of the proposed classification of photographs amongst cart wheels, &c.: “We can imagine a commission composed of men having no more acquaintance with photography than can be gained by looking into shop windows, placing a photograph in the third class, by the side of woven fabrics, lace and embroidery, paper-hangings, and papier-mâché; the “tea-board” style of art exhibited in some photographic perpetrations being about as artistic as the ornamental design on a papier-mâché tray; but what possible confusion of ideas in the minds of the Commissioners could have led them to class a photograph as a tool. In any case it is a result, and as such the Commissioners are bound by their own classification to place it along with the other results of machines acting upon the raw material, even if they refuse to give it admission among the Fine Arts. As it at present stands, it is the only exception in the whole classification, it is the only result involving intellect and design, which is degraded to the level of the machine used in its production. The very paper and glass upon which a photograph is taken is ranked as more worthy than the finished picture. The incongruity is as great as if a painting by Raphael were placed below b rushed and colours, or as if the Venus di Medici were exhibited as a raw material, by the side of a block of marble of less importance than the chisel and mallet used in her sculpture.”
GRAND HISTORICAL PICTURE OF GARIBALDI.—Mr. Barker’s great “sensation picture” of Garibaldi was, we understand, entirely painted from photographs. Some critics state that Mr. Barker’s painting is less true to nature than the photographs which formed his studies.
BIRMINGHAM PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION.—The opening of the Exhibition at Aston Hall, has been delayed longer than was intend ed. The arrangements are, however, rapidly in progress, and it is hoped that the Exhibition will be fully opened shortly. We shall give some particulars of the pictures exhibited in an early number.
1861: P News, June 14, vol. V, #145, p. 286:
Talk In The Studio [selection]
THE SOCIETY OF ARTS CONVERSAZIONE.—Some fine transparent enlarged photographs, by the oxyhydrogen light, were exhibited on this occasion. A still more interesting meeting took place at South Kensington on the 1st of June.
PHOTOGRAPHS CHERUBS.—We were much amused by a photograph recently executed by Mr. A. H. wall, of Old Bond Street, in which a number of heads, borne, cherub-like, on wings, were grouped against a back-ground of sky and cloud. The familiar features of Paul Bedford, with his hat cocked rakishly aside, seemed peculiarly ludicrous when associated with his angelic appendages; and Toole, the ever-funny yet never unnatural Toole, seemed soaring away as if legs were things undreamt-of in his philosophy. Rosina Wright, without her legs, was hard to be conceived, and we could not regard her wings as compensation for a loss which would be quite a national calamity. Pretty Kate Carson as an angel was not half so charming as she is in all the charms of womanhood; and sprightly little Marie Wilton seemed to think her position one demanding very solemn thought. A dozen of our popular actors and actresses, in short, are thus grouped; and the effect is certainly provocative of laughter. Of course, the method adopted in similar to that by which the large-headed, small-bodied, portraits now in the shop windows are produced, viz., printing the heads without the bodies, and painting in the wings with Indian ink.
STEREOGRAPHS OF DUTCH SCENERY.—We have received from a correspondent at Amsterdam a parcel of very interesting stereographs, consisting chiefly of scenes in and about Amsterdam and Haarlem. They are the first Dutch photographs which we remember to have seen, and are full of interest; the quaint style of the buildings, so like those still remaining of the time of Queen Anne in this country, and the prevalence of the universal canal, add much to the value of the pictures. For the most part the photography is very good; vigorous, yet full of detail. A few are by the collodio-albumen process, as given by Mr. Sidebotham in our pages some time ago; but the majority are by the hot water process as suggested by Dr. Ryley, and subsequently by Mr. Parry, and are sufficient to vouch highly for the valuable results obtainable by that process. [See also below]
1861: P News, June 14, vol. V, #145, p. 286:
To Correspondents [selection]
Amsterdam.—We are much gratified by your letter, and the stereographs. Independent of the merit of many of the pictures, the subjects are full of interest, and are to us entirely new. There are two or three suggestions we may make, which will make your work still better. Although you have largely avoided the faults common to dry processes, yet a little more exposure would still be beneficial in many instances. But the chief point to which we would call your attention is the fact that whilst many of the slides have more of one side of the picture in one half, and more of the other side on the other half, it is generally in the wrong direction. Thus if the amount of subject be not exactly the same in each half, the variation should be that the right picture should give a little more on the right side, and the left picture a little more on the left half, just as would really be seen by each eye separately. In yours unfortunately the converse is true; you have a little more of the left side of the subject which would be seen by the left eye mounted on that end of the slide which is seen by the right eye, and vice versa. Read Mr. Shadbolt’s remarks on the subject at a recent North London meeting. The stereoscopic effect of your pictures will be materially enhanced by attention to this mater. Your pictures being sent as a present rather than for criticism, we have felt some hesitation in referring to any points in which they might be improved; but we feel assured that you would rather be informed of a point whereby you may materially improve them than not. We thank you for the kind letter asnd present of so many interesting slides.
1861: P News, June 21, vol. V, #146, p.288-289:
Instantaneous Pictures: Stereographs by Moonlight, &c.
In our recent visit to the Birmingham exhibition we experienced that rare thing, a new sensation. Arrived at Aston Hall, accompanied by our good friend Mr. C. Jabez Hughes, we had, in obedience to the placarded invitation, “This way,” traversed the “Arctic Regions in Winter,” and the same scenes in their summer aspect, and having passed through the stalactite caverns and some other unknown or unnoticed regions in our search for the photographic department, we found ourselves in a large hall in which, standing solitary and alone, were two handsome, circular stands of stereoscopes, exhibited, as we afterwards understood, by Mr. Breese of Birmingham.
We sauntered somewhat indifferently up to them, being in truth much more anxious to see a good display of solar camera pictures, which as yet we had looked in vain for. We had, however, scarcely fixed our eyes on the first stereoscope, when we were startled entirely out of our propriety by the exquisite picture before us. The scene we were familiar enough with, both in fact and in the stereoscope. It was a view of Fountain’s Abbey; but instead of merely the picturesque old ruin, here we saw running water which really was water, bright, sparkling, transparent; we saw an exquisite sky with light delicate clouds, and the whole picture suffused with atmosphere in a degree we had never before seen in a photograph. Let us not be misunderstood: we are not disparaging the gems of Wilson and some others; but these were exquisitely printed transparencies from negatives equal to the best of Wilson’s. When this fact is realized, our readers will understand something of the charm of the picture before us. “Come here,” we quickly exclaimed to our companion, “here is something wonderfully beautiful!” “Nay, but come here,” was the rejoinder, “nothing can surpass this!” Each picture we examined seemed but to awake new feelings of surprise, each being marked with some new feature of wonder or beauty.
A landscape view near Sydenham, with the Crystal Palace in the distance, was, perhaps, one of the most beautiful. Words fail us to describe the exquisite delicacy and ethereal charm of this picture. “Those of our readers who remember Martin’s picture of the Plains of Heaven, either in the original painting or the engraving, will recall the glorious white palace in the distance, so radiant with light that it seems to mingle with the effulgent atmosphere. Just such an effect is produced in the slide we refer to, the fairy-like structure so light and ariel, is yet so distinctly rendered against the still more distant and slightly-clouded sky. Stormy seas, under skies, with storm-driven clouds flying over the, most perfectly rendered, next met our attention. Setting suns, surrounded by clouds, the whole repeated by reflection in the water beneath, such as Wilson loves to depict. An instantaneous waterfall, in which the sparkling waters are crisp and clear as threads of silver; the “woolliness” which arises from moving water, where a prolonged exposure is necessary, being entirely absent. Scenes of still life, presenting the most delicate and exquisite gradations. A slide before us is a strikingly-beautiful subject of this kind”: it consists of a simply but skilfully-arranged group of objects on a marble chimney-piece [illus.], in which there is but one colour, and that colour, to use a solecism, white; difference in surface or texture is almost the only source of variety. It consists of a parian statuette under a glass shade, a glass of water, a cut-glass bottle, and a cut-glass luster, a chased silver flagon, and a pearl shell, arranged as we have said on the white marble chimney-piece, and a looking glass for background. Here we have the white of parian, of cut glass, of water, of silver, of pearl, and of marble. A most unpromising photographic combination: but the result is startingly real and beautiful, and an admirable study of the influence and value of accidental and reflected lights.
If we had wondered and admired, as we examined the slides we have referred to, we fairly grew incredulous when we came to moonlit scenes, and at once began comparing notes as to the various possible ingenious “dodges” by which such illusions, as we deemed them to be, might be produced. There were three pictures rendering moonlight effects. One is a moonlit sea, [illus?] with the play of the moonbeams on the water, so different from the flood of light thrown by the sun on a similar surface. Another is the moon itself in the midst of a mass of cumulose clouds, which are tipped with silver, and rendered more or less transparent throughout by the moon’s light. The third is an interior with the figure of a lady looking out of the window, through which is seen a moonlit sky. [illus.] The figure is, of course, little more than as silhouette, the edge of which is traced by a well-marked line of light. The white lace sleeve on the arm which rests upon a table underneath the window is well made out, as is also the polished surface of the table reflecting the moonlight.
That these effects of moonlight real and illusive as they seemed, were produced in some way by the aid of sunlight we felt little inclined to doubt, until on subsequently meeting Mr. Breese, and spending some pleasant hours in his company, he gave us his assurance that each view was really what it purported to be, without any trick, that the moonlit pictures were produced by moonlight only, and that they had required little more than instantaneous exposure.
Regarding the source of the extreme sensitiveness necessary in producing these pictures, Mr. Breese preserves his own secret, merely stating that it chiefly depends on a modification of the collodion he uses. A few particulars of his practice he placed at our disposal, and these will be interesting to our readers. He uses a bromo-iodized collodion, a mixture of the products of two well-known makers generally best suiting his purpose. He developes with iron, and intensifies with pryo-gallic acid and silver. He uses the silver bath, and the iron developer, with as little acid as he can to preserve cleanness in the negatives, rather looking to the conditions of harmonious relation amongst all his chemicals, than to a constant adherence to any given proportions. For instantaneous pictures he has abandoned mechanical contrivances for rapid uncovering and covering of the lens, trusting to the ready movement of his hands as more accurately carrying out the dictates of his judgment as to degree of rapidity.
The transparencies are all produced by means of wet collodion, either by camera printing or superposition, and we unhesitatingly state that the finest we have seen do not surpass them, nor in many cases equal them. They also, are developed by iron, intensified with pryo, and, sometimes tones with gold. In several cases they are printed from negatives, the sky being in one, and the landscape in another; but where this is done, the two negatives are taken in immediate succession so as to secure the same atmospheric and illuminating conditions for both. The junction in the transparencies is not perceptible.
We have not commented on Mr. Breese’s instantaneous pictures of the crowded streets of Birmingham during Her Majesty’s visit, and which received the royal commendation, because notwithstanding their excellence they have, perhaps, been equaled—we cannot say surpassed—by the productions of some others we have seen.
Before concluding we must refer to a question which will have arisen to the minds of most of our readers: “How is it we have not heard of these wonderful pictures before?” We can suggest but one answer. Mr. Breese is an amateur, producing his pictures for his own gratification, and that of his immediate friends; and that although a member of the Birmingham Society, he is not a talker, but, in common with many of our very best artists, finds expression in his works.
We must not omit to add a word regarding the stereoscopes manufactures by Messrs. Cutts Sutton, and Co., of Sheffield, which struck us as equal to the best we had met with. They were furnished with whole achromatic lenses of five inches focus, and produced an effect of magnitude and distance which was very fine.
1861: P News, July 12, vol. V, #149, p.334:
Talk In The Studio: [selection]
FRENCH PHOTOGRAPHERS AND THE EXHIBITION.—The French Photographers are disposed to resent warmly the proposed classification of photography. The Paris correspondent of a daily contemporary remarks: “The French commission for the Exhibition of 1862 ahs prepared forms of application for intending exhibitors, and has appointed seven places in Paris for their distribution. The chief office is in the Palais de l’Industrie. In connection with this subject, I may mention that the photographers here are exceedingly displeased with what they understand to be the decision of the English commission relative to the classification of their productions with the instruments y means of which they are produced. They say very pertinently that silks are not put with looms but with similar products, and therefore that photographs should be placed with engravings and lithographs. Some of the best photographers declare that they will not exhibit unless an alteration is made in the plan. Perhaps the matter only requires a little explanation, and I therefore merely report facts for the consideration of the commission.”
PHOTOGRAPHY A DETECTIVE.—The various metropolitan police courts have recently been adorned by the aid of photography. We have before heard of the practice of photographing criminals when in custody with a view to a subsequent identification; but we have not seen such portraits forming part of the placards announcing a reward for the apprehension of persons “wanted.” An absconding bankrupt, whose portrait, from the degagée deportment has manifestly been taken with far different intention, now smiles amiably, hat in hand, upon all who read the notification that one hundred pounds reward will be paid upon his apprehension.
THE COMET.—Mr. Warren De La Rue, speaking of this unexpected and unrecognized astronomical visitor,--“ I made an attempt on the 2nd to obtain a photograph of the comet in the focus of my reflector; but not the slightest impression was produced by an exposure of two minutes, although a fixed star was clearly depicted. Yesterday, the 3rd, I made several attempts to photograph the comet by means of Ross’s No. 3 portrait lens mounted on the top of my telescope, and carried round by clock-work,--not the slightest trace of the comet was depicted in fifteen minutes, although the fixed stars were depicted. As Donati’s Comet was photographed by similar means in seven seconds (not by myself), it follows that the present comet is considerably less actinic than Donati’s.” The Athenæum says—“We have seen other attempts made to photograph the comet, but without success. The contiguous stars left a strong impression on the prepared glass, but the comet itself left no trace of its presence.”
1861: P News, July 19, vol. V, #150, p.343-344: [Might Bedford have been influenced by this?]
Correspondence.
A Temptation to Photographic Tourists.
Sir,--Having long waited, but in vain, to see mentioned under the head of “Photographic Tourist,” in your valuable journal, by some able writer, a description of the beautiful, romantic, and picturesque scenery of Lynton, Lynmouth, and its vicinity, I now make my feeble attempt to give a few outlines of it, hoping it may be an inducement to some more able person.
It is my impression that this romantic locality is not sufficiently known, valued and visited by my brethren of the camera. Not that it is altogether unknown to fame for every year brings crowds of people from all parts of the world, and it is visited by many of the most eminent artists of the day.
And every one who has beheld its beauties, inhaled its breezes, or bathed in its waters, is eloquent in its praise. I would earnestly call the attention of the photographic tourist who wish to recruit their health, and fill their plateboxes, with rare and choice negatives to this locality. The sweet magic of streamlet and hill is here on every side, the mountain torrent, with its rocky bed and waterfall, the lakes studded with islets richly wooded, and surrounded with mountains, the sweet inland river bits and savage rocky seashore—all are here. Its glens! what more glorious? Its roaring rivers, foaming over huge rocks! Its thundering waterfalls! Its shady mossy woods and graceful ferns.
They equal in the picturesque beauty of their rocky streams and waterfalls any of the scenes which foreign transparencies have almost led us to believe belongs only to Switzerland; and make us regret that so much of our photographic talent should be expended abroad, when such lovely spots remain unphotographed—almost unknown in these islands.
The far-famed Valley of Rocks is about a mile west from Lynton, and is generally the scene first thought of. There are two roads to the valley—the one a carriage road, the other a path round the cliff called the North Walk. The latter is considered the best by which to gain the most impressive entrance to this stony combe. It is one of the finest terrace walks imaginable, which, for beauty and grandeur of scenery, may challenge England,--or, I may say, the world. Lynmouth and the sea lie 450 feet below; into it a stone may be thrown, so precipitous is the hill; to the right are Countisbury Hill and Foreland, the valley of the East Lyn, and Lyncliff, with the summer-house on its summit. With a suitable lens and camera, a magnificent view of it can be taken. To the left is the open sea at the mouth of the Bristol Channel; and Wales 21 miles across, the water lies in front. On a clear day the Welsh coast, with the counties of Pembroke, Carmarthen, Glamorgan, and Brecon is distinctly seen.
Proceeding onwards, the first terrace of rocks we come to is called the Devil’s Chimney Rock, and Moddle-gate Rock; of the latter a pretty view may be taken for the stereoscope.
As you move on under masses of rocks, in all kinds of fantastic shapes, hanging threateningly some 500 feet or more above you, and terrific precipices below you 450 feet into the sea. Where you behold no gentle wavelets ripple over the sand, but sturdy Atlantic billows rolling in from the far north, come bounding over the stony strand, and leaping high into the air, as they strike against the projecting masses of rocks, mingle their thunder discordantly with the shrill screams of the sea-gulls hovering in thousands around.
“So wonderous wild, the whole might seem
The scenery of a fairy dream.”
We next come in sight of Castle Rock, which gives a beautiful artistic picture, with the surrounding hills.
But no description in words, no pictorial representations can give justice to the wild grandeur of the scenery; it must be visited to be duly appreciated, and if once seen can never be forgotten.
The very top of the centre rock, overhanging the sea, called the Castle Rock, from some supposed resemblance to a castle, may easily be ascended by going up the craggy steep before you. From this path a good picture can be taken of rugged-jack, with entrance of north walk. On various parts of the rock there are a great number of stone seats and tables, and these are a great resort for picnics in the summer season. You ascend the very summit by going up a stony staircase; the view it commands is very extensive. “Imagine a narrow vale between two ridges of hills, somewhat steep: the southern hill turfed; the vale which runs from east to west covered with hugh [sic] stones, now rising in picturesque crags and fragments of stones among the ferns that fill it; the northern ridge completely bare, excorated, of all turf and all soil, the very bones and skeleton of the earth; rock reclining upon rock, stone piled upon stone, a huge terrific mass. A palace of the pre-Adamite kings, a city of the Anakins must have appeared so shapeless, and yet so like the ruins of what has been shaped after the waters of the flood subsided.”
After quietly surveying the scene around, the grim, desolate gorge on one side, the sea so far, very far below on the other, the awful giddy depth beneath you behold the foaming billows rushing in like wild horses, and all around rise giant cliffs perforated with deep mysterious caverns.
A pretty stereoscopic view may be taken of Duty Point, with the great promontory of High Vear in the distance, by taking the west wing of the Castle Rock in the foreground.
On the south side of the hill facing this rock is a perpendicular mass of rock standing out from the side of the valley like aq ruined tower, the layers resembling a pile of huge double Gloucesters, which has from time immemorial been called the Devil’s Cheesewring or Cheesepress. As a close object it gives a good picture. There is a tradition that a party of Danes, who had landed on the coast, were overtaken and slaughtered in this wild glen. The legend appears to be confirmed by the fact, that a number of bones have been discovered in cutting a path up the Castle Rock.
I will here mention the romantic yet imaginary “Legend of Lynton Castle,” included in a small vol. of the “Legend of Devon,” printed at Dawlisle in 1848. In this a castle is given to Lynton, inhabited by the family of Lynton, who are described as having been victims to the Evil One from the year 500 to the middle of the 12th century, when Reginald of Lynmouth began to build a church to his God, on the site of an old abbey at Lynmouth,* (*No abbey and no church having ever existed at that place.) whereupon the spell of the Evil One was broken. “the castle fell, the cliff heaved as if in pain, and the terrible convulsion formed the Valley of Rocks.”
“The devil was seen scudding before the wind—he had lost his hold on the Lynton house.”
The road running eastward through the valley leads back to Lynton, where a general view can be taken of the valley.
Indeed from almost every point of view the Castle Rock and the surrounding rugged cliffs afford a picturesque view. L.
1861: P News, Aug. 2, vol. V, #152, p. 359:
Instantaneous Photographs of London.
The term instantaneous photography is too often spoken of as if it were an absolute thing without any relation to time, place, or circumstance. Thus we hear of “instantaneous processes,” “instantaneous collodion,” “instantaneous dry plates,” &c., without any reference to the other conditions necessary to instantaneity. What constitutes an instantaneous picture is not absolutely defined; in some instances an exposure of one second would be held to be instantaneous, and in others the tenth part of a second only would be required to produce a similar effect. In taking objects in motion, if the proofs are sharp and crisp without any blurring of the moving figure, the picture is held to be instantaneous. The rate of motion of the object, its direction across the field of vision, and the distance from the camera, are rarely considered, neither are the amount of actinism present nor the luminosity of the objects to be taken. If an instantaneous process were an absolute thing, then an express train, passing at the rate of fifty miles an hour, might unquestionably be photographed successfully, a feat which has not yet, we believe, been accomplished. The train passes over a space of about eight feet in the tenth part of a second, our readers may judge, therefore, the rapidity of the process necessary for securing a sharp image of an express train. Nevertheless, we have seen steamers at sea and clipper yachts before a smart breeze with all canvas spread, cutting the waters, perhaps, at a speed of twelve knots, or upwards, an hour, in which every line of cordage has been secured as sharp as if traced with a needle, waves with every crest of foam distinct, and flying clouds, without a blur. We were recently at the sea-side in company with Mr. Samuel Fry, who, in securing instantaneous marine effects, frequently found that the utmost possible rapidity of exposure, with an aperture of less than three-eights of an inch, whilst giving perfectly instantaneous effects, in some cases produced over-exposure, such was the sensitiveness of the chemicals, the amount of actinism present, the luminosity of the objects, and the perfection of the lens. We may add, as a fact somewhat startling, that on one occasion that we—Mr. Hughes, Mr. Fry, and ourselves were present—secured fine effects of water, cliff, and sunset clouds at nearly nine o’clock on a July evening, with an exposure of ten seconds.
Instantaneous effects, in a city, present a new class of difficulties. Whist the rate of motion is less rapid, it is more confused and varied; the objects are less luminous; and the light is less actinic. Messrs. Ferrier and Soulier discovered this fact in producing their street scenes in Paris. If this were manifest in Paris, what must it be in London? The constancy and energy of the stream of moving figures, pedestrian, equestrian, and vehicular, and above all, the smoky, misty, non-actinic atmospheric conditions are well calculated to baffle the most ardent photographer.
Under these circumstances it is not surprising [sic] that so few instantaneous views of London exist. We have recently received from Messrs. Dages and Harman, of Peckham, a score of specimens, of by far the bet street scenes of London which have come under our notice. With a courage which is most praiseworthy, they have not shrunk from selecting many scenes presenting the greatest difficulties, where it has happened that they have at the same time possessed the most interest. Amongst these we may mention London Bridge Railway Terminus, with its crowds of cabs, omnibuses, and foot-passengers, London Bridge itself, similarly crowded, and the clock tower on the Surrey side. Charing-cross, the Strand, Fleet-street,. Regent’s-quadrant, and others, all present a similar scene of activity and bustle. In some of these it is quite easy to count upwards of fifty boldly-defined foreground figures, without mentioning those in the distance. There are also some very interesting river scenes on the Thames, with shipping and steamboats in full motion, &c.
It would be too much to say of these that they were all first-rate specimens of photography; but they are very good under the circumstances. The chief fault which strikes us—and we mention it because we feel assured that these artists having done so much are able to profit by the hint—appears to have arisen from some over-anxiety to obtain intensity. If we judge correctly, the negatives have been taken by some process requiring subsequent intensifying—probably by means of iodine, pryogallic acid, and silver—and this has been carried slightly too far. The tendency in rapid processes is to the production of what Mr. Hughes has happily phrased a “phantom image.” A negative with all the detail there, but so faint, so filmy, so transparent as to be little more than a phantom. To intensity such images at all, so as to secure printing qualities, requires some skill, and there is a great temptation to go too far, and so produce chalkiness. In these prints the distances, which at best in London are generally misty enough, appear obscured a little more than even the smoky atmosphere demands, by too long continued development or intensifying; the same process at the same time producing another defect—the white sky. But these drawbacks are not present in all, many of the pictures being surprisingly good photographs of such scenes.
The instantaneity is in many cases perfect. Here are omnibus horses with uplifted legs without a blur, and foot passengers in every stage of action perfectly defined. Some few of the figures are not quite crisp and sharp, but this is chiefly where they have been defined with the extreme edge of the lens, rather than from want of rapidity in the exposure. Altogether they are very interesting, and, as we have said, the best instantaneous street views of London we have seen.
There is another hint we would throw out to these Artists and others of our readers whom it may concern. The mounts of all photographs, and of stereographs in particular, should never be of a positive colour. The bright yellow of these mounts mars much of the effect. A warm gray, drab , or stone colour, in all cases as neutral and unobtrusive as possible, should be chosen, to secure the best effect.
1861: P News, Aug. 2, vol. V, #152, p.364-365:
Photographic Tourist.
My First Photographic Tour.
If, under the head of “Photographic Tourist,” the following brief narrative of my first experiment in that direction may legitimately claim space, you are heartily welcome to these pages. They go a little out of the usual track, but they may not be altogether uninteresting to your readers, who perhaps may even appreciate their novelty.
I may as well begin by confessing how in the year—48 I emerged from a state of apprenticeship and began to “look around and choose my ground,” in order to start in life and win bread as one of the smaller fry of street-exhibiting miniature painters. How I took apartments in a leading London thoroughfare,--hung out at the street door a small mahogany case containing a few elaborately stippled watercolour sketches and ivory miniatures—and how, I being a poor, lonely, friendless fellow of nineteen, my next prudent step was to get married!
Well, every miniature painter can tell you how that must have ended. Our brother painter, Daguerre, had doomed us to destruction. Bill and Tom, and Bob and Jack, came from bench, and shop, and desk, leagued photographically for our extermination. Charming little homes, on first and second floors, where the refining and beauty-creating power of soul-be-witching art brought humble means but pleasant cheerfulness to its lowliest votaries, were broken up, or became miser able dungeons, in which shabbiness of garments locked-up poor wretches, trembling at the steps of cash-demanding landlords and merciless duns; in which poor wives bravely restrained their own bitter tears the better to wipe away those from the eyes of their (at least at such times commonly) weaker, if not “worser,” halves; and in which poor little children—but, egad, I thought it bad enough: and many a time did I and my poor little dearie—a mere boy and girl—look tearfully along our future path into that narrow black tunnel as it went tapering away into the far distance to a spark of light which, indicating the way out, we fondly called “some hope;” without which—Ah, well! that’s all over now, and has no right to be here recalled.
There was only one way out of the mess we, poor young loving fools, were in. We took it—that is to say, we did sell everything we had of any value, and we did’nt [sic] pay the rent for three quarters of a year, for which, by the by, I had already been summoned—and by so doing we were enabled, that is to say I, as representing both, to visit a certain photographer, receive lessons in photography, and get him to procure us the necessary apparatus.
This photographer was not exactly a first-class one, but such as he was his charges were more within the scope of our paltry means. (I afterwards understood that, previous to the introduction of the daguerreotype, he flourished cross-legged on a tailor’s shop-board). He was a small, thin-faced man, with a large moustache and a rough head of long, straight hair. There was an air of no small consequence about him, when I called upon him, and, though he appeared in a scarlet smoking cap, and an elaborately- braided velvet morning coat, his speech at once betrayed that his education had not been conducted ast either of our Universities. In his way of doing business there was, I found, much of the Jew salesman blended with an exaggerated, ludicrous, and caricatured imitation of the artists’ pride, and such a strong dash of the loftily wonderful, mysterious, and magical, as an alchymist who had discovered the philosopher’s stone, and was not going to part with it for any trifling considerations, might have displayed.
When I first saw him develop the image over the mercury I was curious to understand the theory of this process.
“Blest if I know,” said this great Israelitish-wizard-artist being. “All that I knows about it is, that when I put this ‘ere plate in that there place, somehow or another it brings out the pictur’.”
Such a very lucid explanation wasn’t quite satisfactory; but, perhaps, it would not be so very difficult, even now, to point out not a few photographers whose ideas—despite the efforts of journals and societies—are in a similar indefinite condition as to the rationale of their art.
So I received my lessons, mastered the laborious mysteries of rouge and Tripoli in cleaning and polishing, or buffing the plates; learnt how the same were to be iodized and bromined; how they were to be exposed, and how, by the aid of a spirit-lamp and the mercury-box, I could “bring out the pictur’,” which knowledge cost me, I think, £20.
When all these tremendous secrets, so guardedly and jealously shielded from less-privileged beings, were in my possession, I got my worthy instructor to procure me the cheapest possible set of useful apparatus, a wish of mine which he most religiously observed, for I doubt if a cheaper (or more worthless) set could have been found in the shop of any dealer in such goods. Although the spirit of my wish was certainly somewhat lost sight of in his charging me for this same apparatus, just as much as would have purchased a first-rate set of a first-class dealer. I, however, paid my money cheerfully, and readily enough (although it was just a little less than all I had), for did not my talented instructor ostentatiously parade the generous nobility of his artist-like nature, by repeatedly calling my attention to the dealer’s receipt, for the cas paid, as a proof of the absurd trifle he got, by way of per centage, [sic] in purchasing and making choice of the same, at the expense of so very much of his most precious time, and such very great trouble.
Not long ago I was talking over this affair with this very identical dealer.
“Oh, the cunning rogue,” said he, “I thought that was why he used to induce me to give receipts for more money than he paid for articles, ha! ha! ha! ha!
As he spoke thus, and laughed aloud, I thought gravely of my poor wife, and of our hard, hard struggles in consequence of the above robbery, and was sorely tempted to give this dealer, as some folk say, “a bit of my mind,” but I did not, although I have never since visited his shop.
And thus, then, did I prepare to start upon my first photographic tour. I must confess that I did not take kindly to the new art-science, for all my more ardent aspirations pointed the artist painter’s way, and it cost me no [s]mall effort to resign the earliest love of my heart and lay down the palette, pencil, and brush, for metal plates and chemicals.
I had worked hard and perseveringly, and in the face of more obstacles than I can here describe, to acquire the profession, which thus failed me in my sorest need. I used to go to my master’s studio at 8 in the morning, and leave at the same hour in the evening, to hurry to my not particularly elegant or stylish home (one room in the back of a narrow back street’s house), and get to my pencils and desk. Copying from prints or paintings, or from the round; and when I could afford a model, from the nude. I went in ambitiously for all branches of artistic study, including anatomy—that is to say, so far as I could from the few books, &c.* (*South Kensington Museum was then, alas! not in existence) I contrived to borrow, and I used to sit up night after night until the eager and absorbing interest of my work gave way to the sensation of fatigue, and I could jump into my bed and a sound dreamless slumber at one and the same time. So you must confess I had some excuse for the sad feelings I experienced in deserting the darling profession I had so earnestly and lovingly prepared myself for, and turning all my energies and efforts into a fresh and uncongenial channel.
To return. We made up our minds to start on our tour through the eastern counties, as “photographic artists,” and we had circulars duly prepared, stating that Mr. and Mrs. S--- from ---, London, informed “the nobility, gentry, and inhabitants of Chelmsford,” &c., &c., with a few poetical lines about securing “the shadow ere the substance fade,” &c., quoted, doubtless, from some eminent poetic authority, together with a list of prices, and having completed the packing of our boxes one eventful night, we sat up, talking cheerfully and hopefully of the future until morning broke, lest we should be too late for the earliest train. We chose Chelmsford for our first starting point, for this very sufficient reason, it was not far, and we could land there with at least one bright-eyed sovereign in our possession, upon which we knew a longer journey would have made very serious inroads. R.A.S.
1861: P News, Aug. 2, vol. V, #152, p. 370:
Talk In The Studio [selection]
CANADIAN PHOTOGRAPHS.—We have recently received a parcel of very fine card portraits from Messrs. Nottman, [sic] of Montreal. Amongst these are some portraits we recognize, as that of Sir William Williams, of Kars, and others. As photographs, the pictures are very fine, being sat once soft and brilliant: they possess at the same time a high artistic character, the arrangement of position, accessories, lighting, &c., all conducing to a satisfactory pictorial result.
THE COMET.—Mr. John A. Whipple, of Boston, whose photographs of the moon and stars and Donati’s comet have excited attention, reports that the photographic power of light from the comet is very feeble, hardly making an impression on his most sensitive preparations. Compared with that of the moon, or fixed stars even of the third or fourth magnitude, it is, photographically speaking, not one thousandth part as brilliant!
PHOTOGRAPHY IN PARIS.—A recent Paris census gives no less than 33,000 persons as connected with the production of photographs and photographic materials! If photography deprived tens of persons in the shape of inferior miniature painters of a subsistence, it has manifestly provided employment and incomes for thousands of persons in their places.
PHOTOGRAPHS AT SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM.—A recent report of the Science and Art Department, at South Kensington, informs us, that during the last year the demand for photographs far exceeds the supply. Since the opening of the offices, in October, 1859, to December, 1860, 15,584 have been issued. Negatives have been made from the Liber Studiorum of Turner; and, by way of experiment, to as certain how far the assistance of private photographers can be employed in printing and publishing photographs, come have been invited to purchase these negatives at cost price: one established firm has undertaken to produce these, the Department reserving the liberty to sell other negatives of the same work, if the public call for better or cheaper impressions. The firm referred to is Messrs. Cundall and Downes, and from what we have seen of their copies of the Liber Studiorum we venture to assert that better copies or at a cheaper rate cannot possibly be desired. We hope shortly to have a more extended notice of these valuable reproductions.
1861: P News, Aug. 23, vol. V, #155, p.401-402:
Photography on Mont Blanc.
Last year, M. Bisson, whose photographs have earned him a well-merited reputation, attempted to scale the “giant of the mountains,” with all the apparatus necessary for photographic operations. But the weather was do bad, that he had to abandon the attempt for a time, and this year he has resumed the undertaking.
On the morning of Monday the 22nd of July, he arrived at Chamounix, at the foot of Mont Blanc. The weather appearing favourable, the ascent was decided upon. The entire host of travelers which this beautiful summer has attracted to Chamounix, together with the honest inhabitants of this little village, who seem to live but six months out of the twelve, assembled to witness the departure of the intrepid photographer in company with his guide, Auguste Balmat—the worthy descendant of him who first placed his foot on the summit of Mont Blanc—and a company of five-and-twenty porters, who, in relays, were to carry “up yonder” the cameras, glass plates, collodion, and all the photographic paraphernalia. Then came the leave-taking, the shaking of hands, the oft-repeated cautions, counseling prudence, wishes of success, &c., and at the moment of starting a salute of cannon was fired. The echo flew from peak to peak, the sound becoming weaker and weaker, until lost in the distance, seeming to warn the travelers of the length of their journey, and to stimulate their courage.
At nine in the evening the party arrived at the Grands Mulets, the first station, beyond which M. Bisson was unable last year to proceed. At this point a Bengal light was burned as a signal, to which Chamounix responded by salvos of miniature artillery.
While seeking a few hours of repose, the travelers were soon awoke by the noise of the wind, blowing a perfect gale. Balmat, disconcerted at this contretemps, advised that their departure should be delayed. After the lapse of a couple of hours the violence of the wind abated, the weather cleared up, and it was resolved to proceed. Carefully holding each other by the hand, they, taking their lanthorns, resumed the ascent.
At six in the morning they reached the Grand Plateau. At this hour the weather was splendid. For a time M. Bisson entertained the idea of profiting by the serenity of the atmosphere to take some views of the strange and grand scenes by which he was surrounded; but the fear of losing so favourable an opportunity of arriving at the summit, from which they were still six hours journey distant, induced him quickly to resist the temptation, so pushing on, they soon arrived at the Petits Mulets.
But the courageous little party had scarcely arrived at this summit, when a fearful squall overtook them, that soon became a complete storm, which raised such a cloud of snow as soon to envelope the party in complete obscurity, and it was only with extreme difficulty that they succeeded in finding a shelter.
While sleep, which, as is well known, is mortal, in these elevated regions, soon overcame the whole party, M. Bisson requested Balmat, the guide, to pitch his tent on this spot. The guide, looking at him with unfeigned surprise, exclaimed, “Do you wish to see Chamounix ever again? we have only just time, and by God’s help, to regain the Grands Mulets, the avalanches will soon be coming down, and the snow will not render this place safe very long.”
Groping their way, for they could not see ten paces before them, the party endeavoured to retrace its steps, clinging to each other, and in this fashion they descended a slope of 45 degrees, some six hundred yards in length. Walking, or rather sliding, somewhat quicker than they desired or found agreeable, they soon reached the corridor, and then the Grands Mulets.
They were now at the same spot from whence they started in the morning.
The avalanches began to descend on all sides with terrific uproar. Calling the roll, every one of the party responded to his name; but two of the men were almost blind, and three others were not in a fit state to proceed. M. Bisson, and even Balmat himself were oppressed with severe headache. Nevertheless, they would not abandon their firm resolution, but determined to wait for fair weather, and fortunately, they had not to wait very long.
The wind abating, a consultation was held, whereupon it was determined to send the disabled back to Chamounix, and obtain a reinforcement of seven men. This required a long halt at the Grands Mulets for the rest of the party, longer than at any other portion of the journey. But about nine o’clock in the evening, voices were heard singing; it was the reinforcement from Chamounix approaching, which arrived full of mirth and courage. Their arrival was joyfully acknowledged. The evening was spent cheerfully, and the spirits of the whole party reanimated. At midnight the sky became clear, and illuminated by the rays of a full moon. The signal to advance was given, and the party proceeded to make the ascent.
At seven o’clock in the morning of the 24th they regained the Petits Mulets; at eight they attained the summit. The party was seen from Chamounix, for the echoes of their cannon were heard, even at that elevation.
But it was not yet time to shout victory! For M. Bisson had not yet fought his battle. His most difficult task had now to be commenced; to practice photography at an elevation of 16,000 feet above the level of the sea is certainly not child’s play.
It was first necessary to erect a tent, beneath which, sheltered from light, the plates could be coated, the operator trembling neither from cold nor emotion, and then to sensitize them with steady hands in the nitrate bath. Now the disposition to sleep was invincible; every one was overcome by it. But as Balmat and M. Bisson, notwithstanding his delicate constitution, both resisted, they alone, unpacked the baggage, and arranged the apparatus. The tent was erected, the camera placed on its tripod, the plate coated, sensistized, exposed, and a view taken. What a view! what a panorama! It was now necessary to develop the picture, but there was no water at hand for washing the plates. They had reckoned upon the snow, and upon melting it with the heat from lamps; but in this rarified atmosphere they would only burn with the feeblest of flames. Amid his despair the baffled photographer was involuntarily reminded of the exclamation of the veteran of the Russian campaign, “The fire freezes.” A man was placed at the lamps to keep them burning, he fell asleep. He was replaced by another, who did the same. At length M. Bisson himself succeeded in obtaining sufficient of the precious element. Hastening to his tent, at the door of which Balmat alone remained standing, he finished his negative. Now he might have shouted victory! But no. After a repose of two hours he recommenced operations, he would not go back without three pictures; he succeeded in obtaining them, two were good, one was passable.
The baggage was now repacked, the sleepers awoke after a good shaking, and the descent to the Grands Mulets commenced. They must hurry back to Chamounix, all but the photographer. At this point he must take fresh views, although impatiently expected in the valley below, where a grand fête awaited his return. The village was illuminated, fireworks exhibited, every body appeared over-joyed and happy, but none more so than M. Bison.
1861: P News, Aug. 23, vol. V, #155, p.406:
Talk In The Studio [selection]
PANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPHY.—The panoramic lens in the hands of Mr. Ross has been turned out a complete success. We have just received from Mr. Sutton an exquisite specimen consisting of a view of St. Brelade’s Church and adjacent scenery, including an angle of upwards of 90˚ on the horizontal line, and 55˚ vertically. The picture is about 9 inches long, by 4 ½ deep, and is produced by a lens of only 5 ¼ inches focal length. The definition is throughout very fine, and is pictorially sufficient through every gradation, from the foreground to extreme distance. With the amount of subject included there is a fine picture, which would be comparatively worthless if it only contained one-third, or a little more, the amount usually given with a common view lens. The negative, which was taken on a tannin plate, is manifestly a very perfect one, soft, and vigorous, and giving a nicely tinted atmospheric sky. For a large class of subjects there can be no doubt the panoramic lens will be invaluable in its range of pictorial effect. We understand Mr. Ross has purchased the patent of the lens, and is now engaged in producing apparatus for stereoscopic sizes, and one to produce pictures about 30 in. long, as well as intermediate sizes.
INSTANTANEOUS PHOTOGRAPHS.—We have recently seen some very fine instantaneous pictures of Scottish scenery by Mr. Wilson of Aberdeen, which he had forwarded to Mr. Dallmeyer as specimens produced by the 6 in. by 5 in. triple achromatic lens. Amongst these were some fine views of Her Majesty’s residence at Balmoral, mountain scenery, water-falls, sea pieces with shipping, &c. In one or two cases there were trades of slight under-exposure; but the wide angle, the exquisite definition, the well-chosen points of view, and above all, the exquisite natural clouds render these pictures perfect gems. The charm which a photograph receives from a tint in the sky, and a few delicate natural clouds, is most unspeakable, and worth any cost of effort or appliance to secure.
1861: P News, Aug. 30, vol. V, #156, p.413-414:
Photographic Tourist.
My First Photographic Tour—Continued
Out in the morning early. The rising sun saluted us as strangers rarely visible to him and the hour, as we, inhaling the fresh enjoyable air, and discoursing hopefully and cheerfully of our future, soon found ourselves at the railway station one good hour before the time of starting.
We were not alone in our foolish eagerness to get away. A poor, little, hard-handed servant wench, who had toiled in some dull kitchen—kitchens are seldom anything but dull—for five long years without a holiday, was about to visit her friends and relatives at Norwich, for “a whole month, mum, a whole month,” as she, bursting with the gladness and importance of the fact, exultingly told my wife; adding that she had already been at the station “a whole hour,” and almost thinking, perhaps that her haste decreased the time which separated her from those at home. And there she was, full of glowing anticipations, smiling at every thing, with eyes full of pleasure, making confidants of all who came near her, and evidently considering such glorious news as she was full of far too precious to be selfishly hoarded. Moving restlessly to and fro in a flutter of joy and impatience; now asking when she could get her ticket, or where she was to pay, to what time the train reached Norwich; and every now and then bursting forth to some new confidant with “a whole month, mum, a whole month!”
In due time the tickers were got, the luggage seen to, and ourselves esconced in some comfortless cages ignominiously labeled “for the working classes,” where we were speedily jammed into the smallest possible space, with our knees fitted neatly between those of the opposite travelers. Thus, with puffing and clanging, and banging and rattling, away went we, our only source of amusement in the close hot den being the incessant talking of a tall dame on the one side, thre melodious cries of some unhappy infants on the other, and the coarse chaffing of a drunken farmer in our front, so that we were not grieved when the train stopped, the shout of “m’fard” greeted our ears, and the name, Chelmsford, greeted our eyes.
Descending from the station to the earth we passed between two rows of little wooden houses, and some modern brick buildings of the true cockney cut, and so on to the market-place, with its dusty statue of Justice Tyndall, poring over a black no-lettered volume, and doing treble duty by also supplying water and supporting four small lamps.
Proceeding to hunt apartments we went through the High-street, no very great distance, but which, nevertheless, with one or two streets on either side constituted the county town of Chelmsford. In the course of our rambles we discovered the Shire Hall, of which the inhabitants are proud, the Literary Institution, which the inhabitants, of course, neglect, the Religious Tract Depository, which the inhabitants support, and a vast array of beer-shops and inns, which are more flourishing than all the rest put together.
Seeking some economical refreshments—for a guinea isn’t much to start, in a strange town in a new business, with, is it?—we made our way out of the town to a little road-side public-house, and sat down in its parlor, on an oaken seat, which was also a locker, with our feet on the sanded floor, and some home-made bread and Dutch cheese (without plates), and some beer in an earthern jug, on the white, well-scrubbed deal table before us. It wasn’t a luxurious meal, certainly; but what of that, we enjoyed it. Afterwards we engaged a bed here, and a very snug, snowy, little nest it was, with quaint, old windows containing small diamond panes of green glass cased in lead, also having a very large share of timber, and curtained with clean check curtains; the whitewashed walls were spotless, and the flooring nearly as white, and there were white curtains, and a white counterpane, and such neatness and cleanliness there apparent as I believe one never meets with anywhere out of England. Here, soundly and sweetly, after the fatigues of the day, we fell asleep, having first secured some cheap apartments, of which we could take possession in a day or two, for our first venture as travelling photographers.
A long country ramble occupied the next day, our food still being bread and cheese, and our hearty enjoyment of such humble fare a thing to be envied by many holders of a pampered appetite, or never-hungry lot. So pray don’t waste pity on us, for we didn’t deserve it. Our dinner that day, I remember—oh! so well—was taken in the shadow of a fine old tree which stood upon the sunny slope of a hill; a splendid prospect was before us, and a full band of feathered minstrels were making music for us the while. I have sat down to a table groaning with the richest luxuries since then, but never enjoyed a meal so well as I did that. There was not a soul near, the magic of the glorious sun hung glistening diamonds on the leaves, burnished the gleaming blades of grass, gilded the rough old bole of the tree, bathed the distance in a radiant flood of glowing light, and seemed to defy us to be ought but gay, and hopeful, and care-defying, and merry; aye, and vocal, for after dinner we lay on the grass and sang to one another, sand as the birds sing, our of sheer joy and our instructive sense of freedom.
You are mocking us, perhaps; you think us idle, thought-less, and careless; think, may be, that we ought to have been sitting tearfully, hand locked in hand, with visages drawn out to their longest, contemplating our sad position with mournful earnestness and making ourselves supremely miserable. We were not so soft, my good friend, the troubles would come if there were to come, but as to going a long way to look for and meet them, that was not set down in our list of intentions, and we didn’t do it. They came, as alas! you will see, but we fought none the worse with them for the strength we obtained from encouraged hopefulness.
To shorten my story. We got into our apartments, and when we had recompensed the main with his truck for conveying our luggage from the station, and paid the first week’s rent in advance, we possessed in cash just one shilling.
Had prepared a case of specimens with the aid of my instructor in town, and now proceeded to unpack the same, but when the lid of the packing case was removed—Oh!—horror!—there lawy the case with its glass shivered to pieces!
With a muttered d----n, I looked from this unfortunate case up to my wife, whose eyes were full of tears as she came to my side, and looking without a word up into my face with her loving mournful smile, kissed me. I pressed my lips passionately to her dear little face, and then set to work to remedy the evil by spending my last shilling with a glazier, who cut the remnants into square pieces, which with gum and paper and metal “mats” I contrived to convert into a number of small case for the reception of our specimens; and when they were thus protected, I fitted them as neatly as I could into the unglazed frame again, and so got it ready for exhibiting. At half-past twelve o’clock that night, we went supperless to bed, laughing that we had so well conquered our terrible misfortune.
“Can’t you contrive to dream that you’ve had your breakfast before we get up in the morning,” said my patient and affectionate little partner as cheerfully as ever.
“I never felt any the less hungry for such a dream,” said I, “but suppose we try, darling.”
We didn’t succeed though. R.A.S.
1861: P News, Aug. 30, vol. V, #156, p. 418:
Talk In The Studio [selection]
“THE KIND OF THE GORILLAS.”—We have recently inspected some stereoscopic and other photographs of the “King of the Gorillas,” described so graphically in the work of M. De Chailu, and which is now in the British Museum. It is just about to climb a tree, one branch of which is grasped by its gigantic outstretched arm, the head is turned, with open mouth and glaring defiant eye, on some assailant. Nothing could present a more striking idea of this hideous travestie of humanity which has recently excited so much attention, than the stereoscopic views before us. The repulsive head set right on to the immense chest, without any apparent intervention of neck, suggesting the “men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders;” the cavernous angry eyes—the enormously long and powerful arms—the large unwieldy paunch—and dark shaggy covering—the whole so like, and yet so fearfully unlike, man—are all, in the different stereoscopic views, brought before us with quite as near an approach to life-like effect as one desires to see. They are published by Birstingl [sic] and Co., the firm who secured the contract for photography in connexion with the International Exhibition.
PHOTOGRAPHY IN NEW ORLEANS.—A correspondent, writing from Houston, Texas, requests us to intimate to Mr. Anderson, photographer, of New Orleans, that a letter awaits him in the care of Mr. Atkinson, Manchester Street, Liverpool. The blockade of the port of Galveston cuts off direct postal communication, and Mr. Stanley, of Houston, has adopted this as the best method of forwarding a letter. Regarding the interruption of postal communication, he says:--“Of the Photographic News I have received nothing since the early part of May. Possibly you may have heard that all postal communication between the Southern and the Northern States has terminated, and that you have ceased to forward my copy. When the British Post-Office Department forward mails to Southern Confederate States, I will thank you to continue my supply. Of the missing numbers, if any, I will give you a list, and the extra charge shall be liquidated in my next remittance. Requesting that you will oblige me in this (for a famine in English photographic news does not suit an English rapacious reader), and apologizing for troubling you,--I am sir, &c.”
M. CLAUDET AND M. SILVY.—In M. Claudet’s recent letter to the Photographic Journal respecting the classification of photography in the forthcoming International Exhibition, he had some pertinent remarks on M. Silvy’s letter claiming for photography a purely mechanical character. He remarks:--“A photographer, who has the pretension to be an artist, has thought to distinguish himself by calling his art an entire mechanical work. I think very few photographers will be converted to his opinion, and accept as easily, and without protest, the undignified place offered by the Royal Commissioners which he is so anxious for. The same photographer has asked this very funny question:--Would the constructors of locomotives have the right to enter the engines for the Derby in order to compete with thoroughbred horses? He might, with the same propriety, have asked, why asses should not have also the right to compete with both; for photography has its asses as well as its horses and its engines. But let us not complicate the question; is not the comparison very strange coming from a photographer? Its defect is, that it signified nothing, and is not in the least to the point. For my part, I object to be compared to a horse as strongly as to be compared to an engine. The horse runs in proportion to his bodily agility and vigour, and his spirit is excited by the spurs of its rider; but I do not think that the horse who has run the fastest has proved to have elicited more genius, more mind, than those he has left behind in the course. Both the horse and the engine may indeed be classified among the machines; and at all events the horse will not enter his protest. When the rave is over, he will be more sensitive to a feed of oats than to the praises and admiration of those who have witnessed his velocity on the racecourse. Let us hope that in photographic aspiration there may be something more æsthetic than a picotin d’avoini.”
1861: P News, Sept. 6, vol. V, #157, p.424:
Critical Notices.
Ecclesiastical Antiquities. A Series of Stereographs. Hereford Cathedral. By W.H. Warner.
The series of stereographs before us will be a treat to the ecclesialogist, and all interested in the architectural memorials of antiquity which abound in our cathedrals, the home study of which is strikingly aided by photography and the stereoscope. It has often been observed that the stereoscope enables a man to become an extensive traveller without leaving his own village. It does more, it familiarizes him with by-gone ages, when with a scene like the present before him his mind reverts to the periods to which the views belong.
Here is the Library in Hereford Cathedral. The ponderous and precious tomes, quartos and folios of manuscript, are all safely secured by chains, being too rare and too valuable to remain loosely in their shelves, to the temptation of borrowing students. In sensibly the mind reverts to an ante-Caxtonic period, and glances into the black lettered and illuminated records., Still backward, the “Norman arches in the Choir” bring the retrospective mind to the period of the conqueror. Still continuing its backward flight, “The Font” brings the wanderer to a period full of interesting associations, the time of Saxon England. The toms and monuments, of baronets and bishops; the varied styles of architecture indicating their varied periods, are all aids in the stereoscope—which so truly renders the exact texture of the time-worn stones as compared with that of the various restorations, with every other characteristic detail,--to archæological researches in the study, which might otherwise require the personal examinations and travel of years. Mr. Warner has entered upon the production of these slides, manifestly with an appreciative interest in the subjects he was pourtraying, {sic] which will give great value to the series. As photographs they possess considerable merit, and that merit is considerably enhanced in the eyes of a photographer when he remembers the difficulties involved in these dimly-lighted interiors. The negatives from which the slides before us were produced required exposure, as we glean from the written information at the back of each, varying from forty seconds to thirty minutes. They were all developed with iron, and with very few exceptions sufficient density obtained without further intensifying.
A series of large pictures of the same subjects was, we understand, produced, but these we have not seen. We can, however, cordially recommend these slides as giving a very perfect conception of the interior of one of the oldest of the fine old cathedrals of this country, and as pre-eminently valuable to the ecclesialogist.
1861: P News, Sept. 6, vol. V, #157, p.424-425:
Critical Notices.
Stereographs of the Isle of Wight, and Instantaneous Sea Pictures. By R. James, Junr. Published at Ryde.
The Isle of Wight, as all who have visited it know, presents some of the most lovely subjects which can be conceived, for the stereoscope, and we have amongst Mr. James’s slides, some of the best selected amongst these lovely views; but we also have, we are bound to add, some that are rather tame and commonplace. One of the first things the landscape photographer should learn, is to exercise the art of selection; and one of the next things he should learn, is to have the courage to destroy every negative which lacks pictorial merit. When a photographer exercises this self denial, and only issues such pictures as are really good, he necessarily rapidly acquired a reputation; but if he issue good and bad indiscriminately, simply because he possesses the negatives, he leaves it doubtful whether he is really capable of distinguishing the good from the bad of his own productions. We wish for the sake of the art, and for the sake of the photographers who thus publish indiscriminately, that a more rigid self criticism and self sacrifice were exercised before publishing. It would pay better in the end, as well as increase the reputation of all practicing it. Amongst Mr. James’s views, for instance, there are some very excellent, well selected subjects, and some capital photography; but there are, as we have said, some subjects which are tame and uninteresting, and some which are imperfect photography. Some with stopped out skies, which are thus spoiled both as pictures and stereographs. Mr. James in a modest and intelligent letter which accompanies his pictures, tells us that the greater part are on dry plates, and that the skies are not sufficiently perfect to print without stopping out. Very good; don’t print them at all. Those which are perfect are quite sufficient to gain Mr. James some reputation, which the others will only tend to destroy. We make these remarks in all kindness, because many of the pictures are highly creditable.
To some extent the same remarks will apply to Mr. James’s instantaneous pictures. More rigid self-criticism and self-sacrifice should have been exercised before publishing. We have some charming views on the Solent of sun and cloud, sea and shipping. The general tendency is to slight under-exposure, to thinness in the negatives, and, in some cases, to a want of perfect instantaneity. Some of the pictures are very charming for all that; but some possess these faults in a degree sufficiently marked to destroy their other beauties; and these it would have been well to reject. The negatives we are informed, were chiefly obtained about the hours of four in the morning, with sun-rise effects, and eight in the evening during sunset. Some of these, although a little under-exposed, have great pictorial beauty. There is one slide, “Day-break on the Solent, from Ryde Pier, No. 338,” aq perfect gem of suggestive beasuty and solemn grandeur. Darkness is on the face of the waters; the whole expanse of the sky covered by one huge dark cloud, through a rift in which gleams a faint streak of light, the source of which is as yet unseen, but this gleam is manifestly the harbinger of approaching day. The picture is full of poetry, and reminds one of what Danby or Martin would have loved to paint. Some other of the pictures of sea, cloud, and shipping, re very interesting, and not ill done. Mr. James has, in some instance, like Wilson, pointed his camera in the face of the rising or setting sun, a daring experiment, very fine in result when successful, but rarely securing sufficient success to justify the daring. Here, as in some of Wilson’s, the sun is surrounded by an immense halo, manifestly due to some imperfection in the mounting of the lens, the tube of which causes this halo by its reflection. Where such an immense stream of effulgence is reflected in the water as that produced by the setting sun, it is imperative that the exposure be absolutely instantaneous, as the slightest movement in the water, destroys the exquisitely and strongly marked light and shadow on which the liquidity and transparency of the waves entirely depend,. The manipulation in these pictures appears to be good, and the selection in most cases happy; the lenses we are disposed to think are the chief sources of defect, some imperfection in rapidity, in definition, and in mounting, being apparent. The series has nevertheless many very fine pictures, and the price is so low that anyone buying a score may easily pick out half a dozen which would be cheap at the price of the whole.
Mr. James has also forwarded us a very fine large picture of the interior of his glass room which shows a very choice selection and arrangement of accessories, and forms a fine picture. It is a good specimen of what may be effected by iron development.
1861: P News, Sept. 13, vol. V, #158, p.438-440:
[NOTE: Also published in “Photographic Notes,” Oct. 1, p. 282-284]
British Association for the Advancement of Science.
The Progress of Celestial Photography. By Warren De La Rue.* (*Read on Thursday, September 5th, in Section A.)
At the Aberdeen meeting I had the honour of communicating to this section a report on the state of celestial photography in England, which has since appeared in the Transactions of the Association. Since that period, I have pursued my investigations in this branch of astronomy, and ascertained some facts which I believe will be of interest to the meeting. In the first place, I beg to recall to the recollection of members who may have read my paper, and restate for the information of those who may have not done so, that it was intended at the period of the Aberdeen meeting, that the Kew photoheliograph should be taken to Spain, in order, if possible, to photograph the luminous prominences, or, as they are usually called, the red flames, seen on the occasion of a total solar eclipse. The words implying a doubt as to the success of the undertaking were advisedly inserted, because so little information could be collected from the accounts of those observers who had witnessed previous total eclipses as to the probable intensity of the light of the corona and red flames in comparison with other luminous bodies. My impression was that I should fail in depicting the prominences in the time available for doing so, because I had had the Kew instrument tried upon the moon, and failed utterly in getting even a trace of her image on the sensitive plate, and the corona and prominences together were supposed not to give as much light as the moon. I therefore pointed out the desirability of other astronomers making attempts to depict the phenomena of totality by projecting the image of the prominences direct on to the collodion plate without enlarging it by a secondary magnifier, as in the Kew instrument. It was fair to assume, with the great experience I had acquired in celestial photography, that I should succeed with the Kew instrument if success were attainable, and I knew that far more reliable results would be obtained by this instrument than by the other means I recommended should be employed as the surer means of obtaining some record. Two theories existed, as is well known, to account for the red prominences,--the one prominently supported by the Astronomer Royal was that they belonged to the sun; the other, which is still supported even by an astronomer who obtained photographs of them at the last eclipse, was that they are produced by the diffraction of the sun’s light by the periphery of the moon. It will be seen, therefore, how essential was it not only to obtain photographic images of the prominences, but also how important it was to obtain such perfect images of them that they could not be confounded with the purely diffraction phenomena, if such existed, and that the images should be on such a scale that the defects common to collodion could not be confounded with them. “The pretty near” would have been far more readily accomplished; but having the whole bearing of the subject fully impressed on my mind, I preferred to make a bold venture, and either accomplish what I aimed at or fail entirely. Fortunately I was successful, and to that success the steadiness of my staff much contributed. We now know that the luminous prominences which surround the sun, for they do belong to him, can be depicted in from twenty to sixty seconds, on the scale of the sun’s diameter equal ¾ of the object glass employed. That is to say, an object glass of three inches aperture will give a picture of the prominences surrounding a moon four inches in diameter. The next subject I have to call your attention to is the photographic depiction of groups of stars, for example, such as form a constellation like Orion—in other words, the mapping down the stars by means of photography. I have made several experiments in this direction, and have obtained satisfactory results; and I believe that, at last, I have hit upon an expedient which will render this method of mapping stars easy of accomplishment. The instrument best adapted for this object is a camera of short focal length in relation to the aperture like the ordinary portrait lens, the size of lens being selected to suit the scale of the intended photographic map; and the camera of course mounted on equatorial stand, with clock-work motion. The fixed stars depict themselves with great rapidity on a collodion plate, and I have experienced no difficulty in obtaining pictures of the Pleiades by a moderate exposure even in the focus of my telescope, and they would be fixed much more rapidly by a portrait camera. The difficulty in star-mapping does not consist in the difficulty of fixing the images of stars, but in finding the images when they are imprinted, for they are no bigger than the specks common to the best collodion. It is of no service attempting to overcome the difficulty by enlarging the whole picture; but something may be done by causing the images of the stars, which are mere spots, to spread out into a cone of rays by putting the images out of focus, and thus to imprint a disc on the plate instead of a point. Last year has been so fully employed that I have not yet had time to fully develop this method, but I have ascertained its practicability. Some curiosity naturally exists as to the possibility of applying photography to the depiction of those wonderful bodies, the comets, which arrive generally without anything being known of their previous history, and absolutely nothing as to their physical nature. It would be valuable to have photographic records of them, especially of their nucleus and coma, which undergo changes from day to day, and hence such a means of recording their changes as photography offers would be the best beyond comparison, if the light of the comet were sufficiently intense to imprint itself. On the appearance of Donati’s comet in 1858, I made some attempts to delineate it with my reflector on a collodion film, but without success; and on the appearance of the comet of the present year, I made numerous attempts, not only with my telescope, but also with a portrait camera, to depict it, but even with an exposure of fifteen minutes (minutes, not seconds), I failed in getting the slightest impression, even with the portrait camera. Hence this conclusion may be arrived at, that the actinic ray does not exist in sufficient intensity in such a comet as the last to imprint itself, and, therefore, photography is inapplicable to the recording of the appearances of these wonderful bodies. I now return to heliography. Experiments conducted at the Kew Observatory by my request, have shown that for an image of the sun of any given size when once the aperture of the telescope has been ascertained which is sufficient to produce the picture with the necessary degree of rapidity, it is not beneficial to increase that aperture, that is to say, no more details are depicted, nor does the picture become sharper so as to bear a greater subsequent enlargement in copying than when the smaller aperture is used. It has also been ascertained experimentally that it is not well to enlarge the image beyond a certain point, by increasing the magnifying power of the secondary magnifier, so as to cause the rays to emerge at a greater angle. These results are such as I should have anticipated; but as it was nevertheless desirable to produce pictures of the sun’s spots, with a view to their closer study, on a scale considerably greater than the pictures produced by the Kew Observatory instrument, I commenced some operations of my own for trying whether it would be possible to procure such pictures with my reflector. On maturing my plans, I found that the apparatus which it would be necessary to append would be so weighty, that the telescope would require to be strengthened considerably, to support the additional weight in the awkward position it had to be placed, and it did not at first appear how this could be conveniently done. Ultimately, I found the means of adding a radius bar, and of supporting the plate holder which carries a plate 13 inches square, at a distance of four feet from the eye piece. But here another difficulty occurred, namely, that the image of the sun was so powerfully heating, that if allowed to remain for a very short time on the instantaneous slide, it heated it and ultimately set fire to some part of the apparatus. A trap easy to be moved over the mouth of the telescope had to be contrived so as to open just before the instantaneous apparatus was brought into action, and again shut immediately afterwards. At last these mechanical difficulties were surmounted, and I commenced my experiments to ascertain the best form of secondary magnifier; these experiments are still in progress, and some important difficulties remain to be overcome before pictures of the sun’s spots will be obtained with that degree of sharpness which shall leave nothing to desire. With an ordinary Hayghonian eyepiece, employed as a secondary magnifier, and placed somewhat nearer the great mirror than its position for the most perfect optical picture, in order to throw the chemical rays further on, so as to bring them to focus on the plate, I have obtained some sun pictures of very considerable promise on the extremely large scale of the sun’s diameter equal 3 ft. These pictures have only been very recently procured, and I submit them to the section because I believe that an interest is felt in the progress of celestial photography, and that our members prefer to take part in the experiments as it were by watching their progress, rather than to wait until the most perfect results have been brought about. I may state the mechanical and chemical difficulties have been surmounted, and the only outstanding one is the form of the secondary magnifier. When this has been worked out, perfect sun pictures three feet in diameter will be obtainable with a telescope of one foot aperture in less than the 20th of a second of time. These pictures, when taken under suitable circumstances, may be grouped so as to produce stereoscopic pictures, which must throw considerable light on the nature of the spots. It appears to me that such results must be of value to science, and that such records of the state of the sun’s photosphere, both as regards spots and other changing phenomena, which are obtainable by means of photography, are worth collecting and discussing. It is agreeable to me to work out the problem, so as to point out the means by which success is attainable, and I may for a time carry on the records; but it will, on reflection, be seen that these observations, if continued as they should be for years, are likely to prove a serious tax upon the leisure and purse of a private individual.
Professor Chevallier said that having been in Spain during the eclipse, he could bear testimony to Mr. De la Rue’s achievements. He himself had the opportunity of making one experiment, which showed that the light of the corona was brighter than that of the moon; for the light of the corona was visible through a thickness of glass, which on trying it on the moon extinguished the light. The whole scientific world was indebted to Mr. De la Rue for paying such great attention to a branch of science promising such important results, more especially as applied to the delineation of the stars.
The Rev. Dr. Robinson thought that the matter ought not to be left with mere praise and admiration of what Mr. De la Rue had done. The means by which the Association had done so much in fulfilling its mission of a benefactor of mankind, was by acting uniformly on the principle that whenever a member was found fitted with peculiar aptitudes and powers, his services should be secured, and himself encouraged to press forward with his work. It was clear that the way was open to a new department of knowledge—that a new instrument of research was at command. Let them avail themselves of it to the fullest extent. They certainly had no right to trespass upon Mr. De la Rue’s zeal or time; but he (Dr. Robinson) was sure that if they followed up the question, they might reckon upon Mr. De la Rue’s assistance in directing and superintending. He hoped that an application would be made by the section to the Committee of Recommendations; and he had no doubt that the Royal Society would join in affording the means, to a great extent, of prosecuting the researches so successfully begun.* (*We here remark that £150 was subsequently voted by the committee to be placed under the control of Mr. De la Rue.)
The President said that it was impossible to over-value the importance of the self-registration in all ways. A good many years ago, at his instance, the Association took up the subject of the self-registration of magnetic phenomena, which had been further carried out by the assistance of money from Government. It was certain that the more recondite observations became, the more it was felt that man was a very poor creature, and that matter was very superior to him. Only put a machine in order to do work, and it would do it much better than any man could. Mr. De la Rue had spoken of the precision with which he got images of the stars. The precision was so great that the images were so small that they could scarcely be made out—not from want of visibility, but because they were scarcely distinguishable from spots on the collodion. Some time ago, in America, the difficulty was the other way; for, from the state of the atmosphere, the images of the stars were in a constant shake, so that every instant there was a different image, and the result was impressions rather large and blurred. He trusted that the time would come when the transit of stars would be made to register themselves. The means were not wanting; because in America the course of a star across the field of a telescope had traced itself photographically. It would not be difficult to arrange so that this course should refer itself to seconds of time on a transit clock. The image was continuous so long as the light showed itself; but by galvanic connections with the beat of the clock, it was possible at every second to stop the light, so that a succession of images would be got, giving a distinct register of time by the star, and thus, to some fraction of a second, it can be fixed when the star passed a given point of view. He wished specially to call attention to one of the photographs—an image with the edge of the sun; and he wishes all to observe the rapid degradation of light towards the edge. It was maintained by M. Arago that the light of the sun did not decrease sensibly to the edge; that it was uniform throughout. That was never his (the President’s) opinion; and he gave to M. Arago some reasons for differing from him. If M. Arago did not choose to believe him, he had reasons for his doubt; but if he disbelieved the evidence of this photograph he would have no reason for so doing. It was a matter of public scientific importance that the use of the photograph for the things now referred to should be perfectionated; and as he fully concurred in what the Rev. Dr. Robinson had said, he thought it was most desirable that the Committee should confer with Mr. De la Rue, with a view of securing that effective and direct superintendence without which, in such observations, nothing like practical advance could be made.
1861: P News, Sept. 20, vol. V, #159, p. 454:
Talk In The Studio.
NOVEL APPLICATION OF PHOTOGRAPHY.—We were somewhat amused in Manchester to observe on the placards in the lobby of the Exchange, that the index, or hand, pointing the way to the Photographic Exhibition, was the photographic image of a hand taken from life. One of Manchester’s most able amateurs and scientific men, we were informed, had “lent a hand” for the occasion.
THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION.—Her Majesty’s Commissioners are sending out forms to all known photographers, which they are invited to fill up, stating the space, &c., they will require for exhibiting photographs at the forthcoming Exhibition. All applications must be made before the 30th instant, which is the last day for receiving applications.
PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE WAR.—The American Journal of Photography says:--Photography seems not to suffer quite so much from the war as most other avocations. Photographers in the neighbourhood of military recruiting are even doing better than usual. The photograph has become almost an article of necessity. As long as there is a giving in marriage, or the population is increased, the photographer must be in demand. Photography is a habit with some people; it is the mirror in which the belle discovers how she looked on yesterday.
THE CAUSE OF THE PANIC AT BULL’S RUN.—One of our American contemporaries, Humphrey’s Journal, states that the panic in the Federal army, was caused by the sight of a photographer’s camera! “Brady has shown more pluck than many of the officers and soldiers who were in the fight. He went—not exactly like the ‘Sixty-ninth,’ stripped to the pants—but with his sleeves tucked up and his big camera directed upon every point of interest on the field. Some pretend, indeed, that it was this mysterious and formidable looking instrument that produced the panic! The runaways, it is said, mistook it for the great steam gun discharging 500 balls a minute, and incontinently took to their heels when they got within its focus! However this may be, it is certain that they did not get away from Brady as easily as they did from the enemy. He has fixed the cowards beyond the possibility of a doubt. Foremost amongst them the observer will perhaps notice the well-known correspondent of the London Times; the man who was celebrated for writing graphic letters when there was nobody by to contradict him, but who has proved, by his correspondence from this country, that but little confidence can b e placed in his accounts. See him as he flies for dear life, with his notes sticking out of his pockets, spurring his wretched-looking steed, his hat gone, and himself the picture of abject despair.” Mr. Russell’s letters, it would seem, have been too true and “graphic” to be palatable to our transatlantic cousins, and he is, of course, therefore, a falsifier and a poltroon!
1861: P News, Sept. 27, vol. V, #160, p. 466:
Talk In The Studio.
THE HOLIDAY IN THE WOODS.—An exhibition of works of art was recently opened in connection with the Cornwall Polytechnic Society. We notice that a silver medal was awarded to Mr. H. P. Robinson of Leamington, for his Holiday in the Woods, with which our readers are familiar. An award of £1 was also made to the Rev. F. E. Guttress of H. M. Ship Russell, for a series of stereoscopic views.
PANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPHY.—We have just been favoured with an inspection of a series of the most perfect negative we have ever seen, taken by Mr. Sutton, in Jersey, on curved 9 by 7 plates with the panoramic lens. The angle included was from 90˚ to 100˚, the subjects well chosen, the definition exquisite, and the negatives apparently without a spot or defect of any kind. Nothing could so effectually prove the facility and ease with which curved plates are manipulated than an inspection of these negatives, which are as free from mechanical or chemical defects as the best negatives on flat plates we have seen. Pictorially they are very charming, at least one of the number having fine natural clouds.
THE EXHIBITION AT FLORENCE.—The Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph speaking of the Exhibition of Works of Industry and Art at Florence, says:--“The photographic gallery, already of an alarming size, is growing daily more extensive. Among some thousands of photographs there must be a good deal of rubbish, and, above all, there is an excessive collection of portraits, “of no value to any but the owners.” But there is also very much to admire, and I think photographers (generally an erratic race) might learn something by wandering to Florence. Among the best, I will mention two or three; but there is as yet no catalogue from which I can give the artists’ names. The finest portrait is a full-length picture of the “King,” in plain clothes. It is not painted, as I have seen large photographs in London, but remains in the usual unbecoming black and white; nevertheless, it is the King himself, the best likeness and the easiest pose of the many thousand effigies of Victor Emmanuel that one sees in Italy. There are some splendid architectural pictures, and some landscapes and portraits (done with wet collodion) of Allinary [sic; Alinari], of Florence. Duroni, of Milan, is also very strong, and there are many (nameless as yet) excellent views of Rome and Venice, two cities built to be photographed. An amateur, Mr. William Warren Vernon, displays one of the best executed and most interesting collections. Then there are photographs on cloth, some coloured in water colours, none in oil, and portraits of all sizes, shapes, and colours; and he must be a hermit and a solitary who cannot detect the likenesses of some dozens of his friends.
1861: P News, Sept. 27, vol. V, #160, p. 466:
To Correspondents [selection]
J.M.—A stereoscopic negative can be enlarged to 12 by 10 without serious loss. We cannot tell you the probably cost, nor the best place to get it done. We believe Mr. Samuel Fry, of Forest Hill, undertakes such commissions, you had better write to him. There are several persons engaged in enlarging by means of the solar camera for the profession, but we cannot tell you all their names. We may mention, in addition to Mr. Angel of Exeter, Smyth and Blanchard of London, and Webber of Taunton. An enlargement from a small print is comparatively worthless, it should be from the negative. …. [technical comments follow]
R. Harmer*—We have received the paper, and will take an early opportunity of trying it. [*This may be the R. Harmer who took out a patent in the late 1850s for bi-coloured stereos]
1861: P News, Oct. 4, vol. V, #161, p. 470-471:
Photographic Tourist.
My First Photographic Tour. † († Continued from p. 414)
We rose early, and did what you would call a hard day’s work before breakfast. Yes, before breakfast, for well do I remember how the gloom of coming night shrouded the town, a tedious hour or more before there was any prospect of that same breakfast making its appearance; nor do I forget how grim despair’s sickening and wearying heralds held us in thrall as the misty veils thickened about us, and that first meal still loomed faintly in the distance.
The day in question began, and continued, thus:--In the first place I hung out upon the door-post our unglazed specimen case; thereby attracting a group of indolent loiterers, whose remarks, made in the most audible of stage whispers, were as freely applied to my blushing and uncomfortable self as to my specimens. In the next, I proceeded, with no little nervous trepidation and anxiety, lest all should not go right, to get ready for the much prayed for customers, by cleaning and buffing some plates, &c. Perhaps you never rolled up your shirt sleeves on a hot summer day, and bobbed to and fro, to and fro, for no end of time, over Daguerreotype plates until your wet hands clung to the handles of your “buffs,” and tickling, tickling sensations crowded over every half inch of your hotly glowing person. If you never did, why bless collodion for the tact, and subscribe at once, if it be not too late, to the Archer Testimonial Fund.
Victimizing my wife as a sitter, I proceeded to rehearse my part for the first appearance in the character of a Daguerreotypist, in order that any possible influx of patrons might not find me unprepared for their reception. Of course things went wrong, they always do when there is any special and particular reason why they should not do so. I placed my “buffs” out of doors in the sun to keep them warm and dry, forgetting the dust. I had forgotten not only the dust, which was easily brushed off again, but the greasy fingers which might be passed over the scrupulously cleaned leather, just to “feel how smooth it was,” when my back was turned. The plate coated unevenly over the iodine. My box containing the “quick,” or bromide of lime, had not been made properly air-tight, and the bromine had considerably escaped, so that I found it almost impossible to get any half-tone in the pictures. I forgot to filter the mercury so as to remove the oxidized surface. The thermometer attached to my mercury box had got broken, so that I had no idea of the heat, and the pictures were all “peppered” from excess of mercury; my fingers damp with excitement and perspiration caused stains at the spot where they touched the plate in placing it over the mercury. When I finally got a picture near the mark, my first batch of “gilding” was spoiled by pouring the hypo into the gold instead of the gold into the hypo. Marking up some “sel d’or,” which I luckily had, I proceeded to gold, or “enamel,” as I had been taught to call it, and as I anxiously watched the picture improving in colour and brilliancy, I continued the application of heat until up suddenly flew the surface, cracking and exfoliating. I made one blunder after another, until confused, bewildered, and teazed, past bearing, I sat down in the little dark closet I had extemporised and cried and sobbed like some poor, sick, scolded, heart-broken little child. I could not, despite my utmost care, get such pictures as I could hope would find purchasers, and without such, what on earth could I look forward to? Think of this before you laugh at me, my dear reader.
From this unmanly fit of weakness I was aroused by the glad voice of my exultant little partner, announcing joyously, “Our first customer.”
Well, perhaps our first customer was not absolutely and perfectly beautiful, observing her red hair, her small, round-tipped, highly polished nose, her slit-like eyes, and her gash-like lipless mouth; any cold, uninterested observer might have called her, I don’t doubt, a very vulgar, ugly, talkative, little serving-wench. I called her an angel, a most radiant being, full, of spiritual beauty!
“Wott’ll yer take to do my likeness, mister,” said this “radiant being,” as, having smoothed my damp, straight hair, and wiped the tears and perspiration from my flushed and burning face, I bowed myself into her glorious presence. After patronizing me to a very liberal extent in promises, and evincing in other ways, the condescending nobility of her nature, she sat for a “five-and-sixpenny” picture, for which she was to call again in an hour or two. I won’t say much about the picture I got, it was certainly better than its predecessors, but, well, I hoped it would pass, and waited anxiously for the “radiant being’s” second visit; for till her visit and her money had been paid we could but remain foodless.
Now to secure another hope, apart from that of selling the Daguerreotype. I set to work and made a sketch from it in India-ink, and giving this a few washes of colour, succeeded in completing it exactly ten minutes after the second hour had passed and her angel form was due. But three hours passed, and she came not; three hours and a half passed, and still the spiritual beauty of her presence was desired: “Shades of evening close not o’er us and we, in vain, for they would and did do it, and yet we mourned her absence. Nearly all the the [sic] light of our room had gone out of the window, and thick darkness had seized upon its corners, when from the gloom near the door came a voice of music to our eager ears, crying pantingly—
“Oh! lor, arn’t I had a run for it, and no mistake, mister!”
We borrowed a light from our landly, for candles we had none. The light of those angelic eye-slits fell upon my Daguerreotype—the voice of music denounced it. Oh! what a sinking of heart was there, my readers. From those slits aforesaid a glance illumined my sketch, the voice of music uttered melodious sounds of praise and pleasure. Then! what a leaping in the breast was there, my readers. And so I won my “breakfast” and we sat down to partake of it with light and grateful hearts, and going early to bed, slept so long and sound and dreamless a sleep, that it was like a foretaste of our death-slumber.
The next day was market-day, Friday, and my show case, being in Conduit-street, leading to the market-place, was surrounded with numerous admirers immediately it appeared. The clattering of horses’ hoofs, the screeching and squeaking of pigs, the rattling of carts, the loud-voiced recognitions and salutations of a crowd of pedestrians, the bleating, of sheep and the lowing of cattle, &c. &c., made this day a strange contrast to its predecessor, when the street was so quiet and deserted that I feared my presence in the town would not be generally known in much less than two years, if I depended for its announcement upon the exhibition of my specimen case. It turned out quite a bustling busy day with me too, for ere it closed, I had taken and finished no less than eight pictures, all more or less satisfactory; of a farmer with blue coat and brass buttons, cord breeches, top boots, and a broad brimmed fluffy beaver hat, of two farmers in all the fashionable grandeur and style, and with all that haughty supercilious air too, of Regent-street fops, of another farmer in a loose frock-coat, the tails of which flapped playfully against his heels; of another fat old farmer who fell asleep before I could uncap the lens, of two farmers’ daughters whose lofty air of condescending superiority highly befitted their aristocratic pretensions, and who drove off in a cart with two small porkers; and of one farmer’s wife, who promised that on the next market day no end of other farmers, and farmers’ wives, and farmers’ daughters, should patronise R.A.S.’s Chelmsford “establishment,” IF her portrait “turned out a good one.”
For the remainder of that week we were unvisited and alone. At the beginning of the next I made a step upward in the esteem of my neighbours, being visited by one of the awfully mighty ones of Chelmsford; the great-----, who lived in a large stately house standing in the London road, but which house was somewhat like ------‘s person and character, more wide in surface than great in depth. This last remark, however, may arise from prejudice, for I did not please him, and I did displease him.
Soon after we were again penniless, and in
despair, so I sat down and exhausted our supply of note-paper and envelopes by
writing certain circulars, which set forth how,
R.A.S. “having achieved a London reputation” (heaven forgive me for lying) was
“making a short stay,” &c., &c., and these circulars we ourselves delivered at
the doors of the more respectable-looking houses. The effort produced nothing.
We passed a day without food, when it struck me that by personally exhibiting a
few specimens at some houses outside the town I might perchance get something to
do “at their own houses.” Accordingly off I started, empty and melancholy, on
my errand. Several times I advanced as far as garden gates, and found my
courage ooze away before I could open them. At last seeing a lady in a garden I
made a desperate effort and began to address her, but, I suppose the desperation
of the attempt found expression in my face, for no sooner did I open my lips
than the lady cried hurriedly, “Oh dear no!” and retreated with evident
affright into her house, not only shutting, but, as my ears informed me, rapidly
bolting the door also. My next application was more successful: a kindly,
venerable old quaker lady listened to me with a pleasant smile full of
encouragement, and bade me come and “take” her little boy on the morrow, in
water colours.
In the morning I went, sat down in the cheerful dame’s neat and cleanly little parlor, finished my sketch, received its price and a glass of home-made ale, and bade my patron adieu. My wife met me on the road, anxious to hear how I had fared. I exultingly showed her the money: we purchased food on our way home, and ate it directly afterwards.
In a day or two we were as badly off as ever, and no new chance seemed likely to save us from starvation, when—Oh! jubilee!—a letter from London informed me that a picture painted and left with a dealer before I started had sold for £20, a cheque for which-=-short the amount of commission—was duly enclosed. R.A.S.
1861: P News, Oct. 11, vol. V, #162, p. 489:
Miscellaneous [selection]
PHOTOGRAPHING FROM BALLOONS.—At a recent meeting of the American photographical Society, the President read a copy of a letter which he had addressed to the Secretary of War, stating the opinion of the society that photographs might be taken from balloons which would be of great value in military reconnoissances [sic], and offering the services of the society in aiding the Government to employ this valuable power. The President remarked that though the letter was sent more than a month ago, he had received no answer to it. This neglect he attributed to the overwhelming mass of business which the Secr etary of War has on his hands. Mr. Seely remarked that probably the secretary was not aware of the practical value of the aid tendered. A photograph from a balloon would be a perfect and minute record of the country observed, which might be examined under the microscope, and details brought out which would be invisible from the balloon. Mr. Tillman regretted the inattention to their offer, but could see nothing further for the society to do in the premises.
1861: P News, Oct. 11, vol. V, #162, p.490:
Talk In The Studio.
STEREOGRAPHS OF CORNWALL.—Mr. Wilson has, we understand, taken some instantaneous negatives of the Land’s End, Logan Rocks, &c., but although he waited three days, could not, on account of the fog, get a picture of St. Michael’s Mount. He intends, we are informed, to visit Cornwall at some future time to compete his views of the Cornish western scenery. These pictures should be in every collection.
A HINT TO PHOTOGRAPHERS.—In a recent article in the Cornhill Magazine on “Physiognomy,” attention is called to the important contributions photography can make towards establishing a systematic physiognomical science. The following paragraph from the article will interest our readers:--“It is necessary to point out that the physiognomist has never yet had adequate materials wherewith to build up a science. The diversities of physiognomy are infinite. In the whole visible world there is no class of appearances so varied, and in their significance so subtle as those of the human form. Fuseli wrote on one occasion: ‘-Let the twelfth part of an inch be added to or taken from, the space between the nose and the upper lip of the Apollo, and the god is lost.’ That is too strong a way of putting it. The god remains in the Greek marbles even when his nose is broken off. It is not in any one feature that he resides, but in all. Let the statement pass, however, as indicating in a rough way what a clever painter and man of genius thought as to the astounding differences of character expressed in evanescent differences of external form. Now, in order to be able to generalize with anything like success all these subtle shades and variations of contour, we require an immense number of accurate observations, and to have them side by side before us, sop as to be able to form a comparison. This we have never yet had. Lavater gives a great number of portraits, and he had many more in his collection, but he was always complaining that they were unreliable. In this one the nostril was out of drawing; in that the chin was a falsehood; here the eye was uncertain; there the hand was nothing at all. Especially in the hand have the portrait painters failed, and there is nothing that the physiognomist is so much in want of as a good collection of hands. It is to be hoped that the discovery of the photograph will prove to be the dawn of a new day for him. As the science of chemistry was nothing until a perfect balance was invented, and as the science of physiology was really unknown until the microscope was improved, so it may be that the faithful register of the camera, supplying us with countless numbers of accurate observations, will now render that an actual science which has hitherto been only a possible one. We shall get a great variety of heads, and be able to classify them according to each separate feature, and according to each leading trait of character. Above all, when once the attention of the photographers is called to the want, we shall begin to get hands—hands by themselves, and hands in connection with faces. These are facts which we have only now for the first time the means of getting in sufficient number. The portraits we have had have, for accuracy, not less than for number, been very insufficient. It is not so much portraits that we have had, as engravings of portraits, and engravings after engravings, the representation being thus at third and fourth hand.”
1861: P News, Oct. 18, vol. V, #163, p.495:
Critical Notices: Instantaneous Views of Paris. London: The Stereoscopic Company.
This is a second series of instantaneous street views of Paris, issued by the Stereoscopic Company. Excellent as were their former series, the present, in many respects, surpasses it. The most crowded thoroughfares of lively Paris are here most exquisitely rendered, with a perfection of definition and detail perfectly marvelous. Walking figures, running figures, falling figures, equestrian figures and vehicles, all caught in their acts without the slightest appearance of movement or imperfect definition. Here is a lad transfixed in the act of falling, flying forward, as something has tripped him up; he remains on the slide doomed neither to fall further nor rise again. Here we have unimpeachable evidence that two well-dressed Parisians were seen walking down the Boulevard Montmartre actually out of step, the right leg of the one and the left leg of the other being uplifted at the same moment. The majority of these pictures are entirely free from every trace of under exposure, and are brilliant, clear, sharp, bold, and delicate, some of them also possessing fine natural skies. They are also remarkably clean and free from blemish or manipulatory faults, furnishing examples altogether of what instantaneous pictures ought to be. Of the interest of the scenes it is unnecessary to speak. Life in Paris is almost a synonyme for all that is brilliant and gay, and these views are chosen from the busiest scenes of the gay metropolis.
1861: P News, Oct. 18, vol. V, #163, p.495-496:
Critical Notices: Instantaneous Sea Views. By J. Symonds, Ryde.
We cannot speak so highly of the pictures before us as of those we have just noticed. Whilst marine views present fewer difficulties than street scenes, the photography here is far inferior in quality. Many of these views on the solent are full of interest as far as the subjects are concerned, are also perfectly instantaneous and thoroughly well defined; there is a lack of brilliancy in some, and an absence of cleanness in others, which indicate either want of care or want of skill in the manipulator. These considerations apart, many of the pictures are well chosen and interesting photographs. One very fine and artistic picture entitled “Down by the sea is vignetted.” This adds much to its charm as a picture, but militates against its effect as a stereograph. Stereoscopic pictures are intended to be actual presentments of nature as seen, sufficiently so to present an illusion to the eyes: this, of course, could never be the case with a vignetted picture, which in the stereoscope produced a most unsatisfactory effect. The view is, however, sufficiently fine as a picture to induce us to remove one-half from its card and place it on another and larger mount. The chief thing Mr. Symonds, or his operator, has to study is greater care and cleanliness, and to acquire a little more brilliancy in the negatives.
1861: P News, Oct. 18, vol. V, #163, p. 496:
Critical Notices: The Tower of London. By Dages and Harman, A. Gaudin, Sermon Lane, St. Paul’s.
We have before seen isolated views of the Tower; but never until now an entire series, giving a complete view of this monument of old London. It is not too much to say that there is no building so fraught with historical associations of interest as this old prison, slaughter-house, and tomb of so many nobles by birth or intellect, and the victims alike, whatever their merits, of a similar bloody fate. The ghosts of accomplished Raleigh, gentle Lady Jane Grey, ill-fated Mary, “false, fleeting, perjured Clarence,” fair Anne Boleyn, and a troop of the other victims of her ruthless lord, who “spared no man in his anger, or woman in his lust,” seem to flit by as we gaze in succession on the “Bloody Tower,” the “Bowyer Tower,” the “White Tower,” the “Traitor’s Tower, the “Constable Tower,” the “Beauchamp Tower,” and others, each marked by some dark memory. What a chapter on the virtues of kings is here suggested! We turn from these reflection to one more pleasant—the excellence of many of these pictures. Some are a little hard, but as a whole they are clean, brilliant photographs. Here is one which will possess historic value, a group of warders, or “beef-eaters,” as they are known in common parlance, in the old historic dress, which has been, we believe, recently condemned, to be numbered amongst the things of the past. The series, which numbers between tow and three dozen, will, we apprehend, be in demand as a source of instruction as well as amusement. We may add, in answer to some inquiries, that these, as well as former series by the same artists, are published by A. Gaudin.
1861: P News, Oct. 18, vol. V, #163, p. 496:
Critical Notices: Stereographic Views in Italy and the Pyrenees. By William Bircham, Jun.
We have received from Mr. Bircham a dozen stereographs of scenery in Italy and in the Pyrenees, which far surpass the average of amateur photography. The views are well chosen, every gradation from the bold foreground, to the delicate mountainous distance, twelve or twenty miles off, is perfectly rendered, and added to this, in many instances, a fine sky, with delicate natural clouds. Most of the negatives appear to have been taken instantaneously, both clouds and running water preserving all their own characteristics, the clouds delicate and fleecy, the water transparent and in motion. Amongst those which especially please us are the “Tower of the Black Prince,” “The Bay of Naples,” the “Entrance to the Valley of Luz, from Argeles,” and the “Marina and the Porta Felice, Palermo,” all of which are decided gems of photographic scenery.
1861: P News, Oct. 18, vol. V, #163, p. 502:
Photography in the Reformatory.—A novel and interesting application of the art is now in daily use at the famous Mettray colony, near Tours, which is the first and most celebrated reformatory established in France for young convicts. Every urchin brought to this house of correction has his portrait taken the moment he sets foot in it, and another is made on the day of his leaving. The first represents the rags, dirt, and misery, the physical and moral degradation, the prematurely careworn features, the scowling, covering, timid, uneasy, and withal ferocious look of the born thief. The second shows the same individual transformed by the magic of judicious discipline, which includes physical comfort and kind treatment. His dress is now clean and neat, and his countenance is redolent of health, contentment, benevolence, and energy. Philosophy had never in any age, a grander subject for contemplation than two such pictures. More than one of the English reformatories adopt a similarly interesting record of the good they effect.
1861: P News, Oct. 25, vol. V, #164, p. 514:
Talk In The Studio [selection]
ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATION.—We regret to announce that this association has ceased to exist; that it has, in fact, from several causes, proved a failure. The stock of photographs, &c., we see are announced for sale.
PHOTOGRAPHY AT THE EXHIBITION OF 1862.—Mr. Leighton writing to the Journal of the Society of Arts, says: “Perhaps in no art has there been greater progress made, since our last decennial Exhibition, than in that of photography—an art that, by the use of collodion, has risen from a mere toy to a giant power and boundless pleasure—a power that I hope may not be turned against us in 1862. Photographers must be up and stirring if they want to compete with the results I have seen in the northern capitals of Europe, and which, doubtless, are to be found in the south also. I allude to the life-size portraits taken by the action of light, of heroic proportions and artistic worth, reminding one of the best works of such great masters as Rembrandt, Reynolds, Velasquez, and Opie. I know it is the idea here that objects the size of life cannot be done satisfactorily to compete with the works of our artists—a great mistake, that we may find to our cost in next May. If we had nothing to contend with save the miserable heads exposed in one or two of our leading thoroughfares—great faces, or rather “likenesses,” without expression, being libels on humanity in general and individuals in particular—we should have little to fear; but such is not the case. From Berlin, Dresden, the Hague, Aix la Chapelle, and Brussels, we shall have first-rate full-length portraits, looking more like grand paintings in sepia, than tarnished silver fixed by a chemical process, independent of the artist’s touch as I presume them to be, though some hold otherwise. All I can say, from several at present exhibiting at an Exposition in the Palais du Prince Heréditaire, at Brussels, is, that if touched by artists they are a great credit to their powers, and the result highly satisfactory; but I do not believe nature in this case has required such aid or had it. At Brussels, in the Exposition I name, are several life-sized portraits, remarkable for breadth of effect, and artistic treatment; a half length of a man, in a loose coat, with a broad felt hat in his hand;’ and another of a gentleman reading, on a bed, or a couch, much foreshortened; also one of the Emperor of the French, I think taken from a small album portrait. The miniature painters’ occupation is nearly gone, and we may, perhaps, see the second-rate portrait painter also superseded, and the same negative made to print pictures for the walls of town-hall, or mansion, or for the album in the lady’s boudoir.
1861: P News, Nov. 1, vol. V, #165, p. 521-522:
Photographic Tourist. My First Photographic Tour.* (*Continued from page 495 [this is an error; continued from p. 521]
Mere written words cannot describe the deep-felt, earnest gratitude with which our full hearts thanked Providence for the timely aid afforded in the sale of this picture; it came like a stout cable to the desperate grip of the drowning; like a sudden restoration of healthy life to the bed-ridden sick, or a broad strong shield thrust swiftly between us and a descending death-blow.
Leaving Chelmsford, the last memories we carried away from this little town, were those of its races. Great was the bustle, extensive indeed the preparations, and by no means small the dignified importance with which the Chelmsfordian natives ushered in this great event. All the previous day a long panorama of travelling shows, conjurers, gypsies, dancing girls, musicians, performing dogs, &c., came passing through the place, and towards evening an immense sensation was created by the advent of two short sturdy-limbed men, with wen-like [sic] joints, in pink fleshings, and scanty, well-worn velvet trunks, heavily bespangled, having bracelets to match, who rode sternly in with folded arms upon two tame “trained steeds,” arrayed in theatrical finery as worn and shabby as that of their wonderful masters. But these were only shadows to the coming event of the morrow, when Sunday attire made glad the weekday sun, when every vehicle of every kind was furbished or mended up for use or hire, when small but majestic, scrupulously clean, and brightly smart jockeys were visible, the admired of all beholders, smiling condescendingly in conversation with the great, but not above bestowing a monosyllable or two upon the awe-hushed, gaping small; and when coach after coach-load of excited sport-seekers were borne in clouds of dust from the town amidst the wild hurraying of the frantic juveniles, until the last having disappeared silence again reigned supreme, and the poor little place seemed even more lonely and deserted than ever. But towards evening back again came all the uproarious noise, and all the excited crowd, with the addition of brass bands, and barrel organs, and violins, and singing and shouting, and screaming, &c., until the inns grew full and overflowed with drunken revelers, for whose coppers the home-made niggers banged and twanged, and rattled and jingled, and the shabby touter outside the patched and tattered circular booth of the equestrians bawled, hoarsely, “Hi! hi! hi! hi! this way! this way! To the riders! the riders! hi! hi! hi! hi!” and we, in the midst of all, bade all adieu, and went our way to Colchester.
We started for a stroll through this proverbially loyal town the morning after our arrival therein, and I was first pleased to see the numerous picturesque old houses, with their high gable roofs, projecting stories and uncovered timbers. How strangely familiar—even when they are something quite new to our eyes—these old houses always appear; they come to us like good old musical airs, old-fashioned pieces of furniture, or any other things of ancient days, which judged by ordinary reasoning, should be novel and strange, but which are, nevertheless, so mysteriously homely and familiar. From some such cause, this old town being full of remnants of the past, seemed like an old friend long neglected, rather than a new one never seen before.
I was next attracted by the novelty presented in a lowly little, old church, which, thrusting a clock out over the pavement of the High-street, from a stumpy, ivy-grown, dwarf of a tower, stood with its one half in complete ruin. This, I found, was called St. Nicholas, and the portion in ruin had fallen many years ago, and had been left ever since just as it then appeared, save that the creeping ivy had gradually cloaked its crumbling walls, and tall mocking weeds now flaunted it bravely above their roofless beads* (*It makes a very good picture, and my daguerreotype of it never fails to awaken interest in all who see it.) Turning round by his relic, and bearing to the left, I was soon afterwards betrayed into an exclamation of delight by seeing, close beside the shabby, ill-supported theatre, the grand old picturesque ruins of some rare old priory, called, as I soon learned, St. Botolph’s, or, as my informant said, “St. Bulph’s.” This is a great treat for the artist or architectural antiquary. The massive remnants of the once stately and richly decorated walls stand rugged and rock-=like, half clothed in luxurious ivy wreaths, and bearing on their broad tops a thick crop of tall, waving grasses, and gracefully bending weeds; the shattered pillars rear themselves grimly against Time, the conqueror, and perish slowly but unshrinkingly like warriors disdaining flight; while the broken and crumbling relics of the ancient sculptor‘s chisel, showing here and there in defaced and battered fragments, now seem far more closely allied to nature than to art. I got a capital view, some few days after, of the ruins from a post near the iron gate by which you obtain admittance to inspect the, obtaining, in my picture, the elaborately decorated gateway of the once magnificent west front, and the tall, circular arched pillars at the sides. The building dates from the reign of Henry the First, was shorn of its importance by the Reformation, and fell, with so many other things of joy and beauty, before the morbid passions of the strong red-handed Puritans during that that [sic] terrible Civil War, in which this staunch old town displayed so well its—let me see—what shall we say? its unswerving loyalty and honest truth? or, its stupid prejudices and obstinate bigotry? Well, perhaps the age is not yet old enough to decide. But we are quite old enough to denounce the fanaticism which could thus destroy the records of our country’s earliest and noblest aspirations, and lay in dust so many of the noblest works of that sweetest nurse and handmaid of all true religion—Art, Oh! Fanaticism and Bigotry, how have ye cursed the lands and their inhabitants, and what deadly instinctive enemies to Beauty have ye ever been, piling the most costly work of the Brush, the Chisel, and the Pen on one huge funeral pyre, as at Florence, battering down the stately fabrics raised by glowing reverence and love, as here in Colchester, or sternly denouncing the Drama, Music, and the Fine Arts in our own Ebenezer Tabernacles and Sectarian Meetinghouses.
My next point of interest was “The Castle,” it stands to the north of the High Street, close behind the houses, and a sturdy old stronghold has it proved. Notwithstanding the power of increasing and advancing years, the assaults of war, and the attempts of those who were to it even stronger foes, who wanted the ground on which it stands to serve some meaner purpose, it still remains, obstinately defiant of both man and time. Strange tales of wild daring and frantic strife could these rugged walls unfold, of the havoc and destruction with which it was surrounded, when victorious Fairfax came at the head of his parliamentary army, and fumed, and chafed in spiteful bitterness, and futile rage about its strong towers for eleven tedious weeks: again and again repeating the desperate assault, and again and again retiring, baffled, and despairing from its well-defended flinty barriers. The dauntless loyalists surrendered at the expiration of that time, but not until the sick, weary, hollow-cheeked, and leaden-eyes defenders were completely worn out, and had no longer the smallest scrap of their jealously-hoarded food, nor cat, nor dog, nor horse, nor any dead or living thing which man could ear for life, remaining in their reach. I was never more interested than in reading the account of this protracted siege, and afterwards used to look with no small degree of sadness and interest, upon two small white stones beside the castle, which mark, it is said, the spots on which the king’s good men and true—Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle—were shot to death immediately after surrendering, not to the Puritans, but to even a more cruel foe, starvation. The mound on which the castle stands is said to be of roman origin, and on the loftiest tower—in the place doubtless, where once floated the proudly defiant banner of the dethroned king—a goodly tree is growing. I secured, before leaving the town, two camera pictures of the castle, but was unable to get far enough from it to secure such a view as omitting a too conspicuous cabbage garden, I afterwards got with my pencil. A very picturesque effect, however, would result from taking it with your camera, stationed at the commencement of the lane which runs behind the castle, taking in the cottages on one side, and the trees on the other. I have since seen several paintings of the castle in which this view has been selected by the artists.
But the town of Colchester is a rich mine of interesting objects, and being only a short distance—about fifty miles—from London, can be easily reached by our metropolitan photographers; in fact, I do not know a place in which a more pleasing variety of views can be secured. No end of picturesque and beautiful spots exist in the town’s immediate vicinity, and in the town itself a number of fine ruins, ancient churches, and old fashioned houses, will serve to fill worthily no small number of plates. St. John’s Abbey gate is well worth taking among the rest.
1861: P News, Nov. 1, vol. V, #165, p. 526:
Talk In The Studio.
THE PHOTOGRAPHIC EXCHANGE CLUB.—We have pleasure in informing our readers that a good number of names of gentlemen anxious to join the Photographic Exchange Club have already been forwarded to the secretary. As, however, several have not yet sent pictures, the distribution of exchanges will not take place until early in December. It is desirable, that the prints for that exchange be forwarded to the secretary as early as possible.
PHOTOGRAPHS OF GHOSTS.—The London Review, in an article on the tendency in modern literature to the revival of ghost stories, suggests to the writers as a means of verification, that they obtain photographs of their spectral visitors. It says: “Now, if the spectre can ask the favour, let science do it a good turn. Let optics and chemistry catch this modern ghost and photograph it! It can fix the tails of comets and the atmosphere of the sun; the other day a photographer at Berlin caught a stream of electric light flowing out of the bronze spear of Kiss’s ‘Amazon.’ A ghost can hardly be less material, if it wear crinoline, is helped twice to beef, drinks claret, and wants a portrait taken. The photographer’s plate is liable to no delusions, has no brains to be diseased, and is exact in its testimony. We will believe even in the modern ghost if it can be fixed on paper. And it can surely walk into Claudet’s or Mayall’s, if it can go to the theatre.
CHINESE PHOTOGRAPHS.—We understand that Signor Beati, so long engaged in China and the East in photographic operations, has just arrived in this country with a large stock of pictures, many of which, we understand, include scenes during the late war.
1861: P News, Nov. 1, vol. V, #165, p. 556-557: RECOPY PAGE 557 AND COMPLETE
Photographic Tourist. My First Photographic Tour.† (†Continued from p. 522)
The ancient city, walls, said to have been laid so low by that terrible Fairfax, have many relics over which I frequently stumbled in my rambles about the town. In places these fragments are still tall and strong, but most frequently their rugged barriers of ancient masonry are mere mounds, and peering in their grim ruin from picturesque nests of luxuriant ivy, creeping, and flowering plants, and thickly growing grasses and weeds, help to form very pleasing pictures.
If you are fond of “close scenes,” as we artists call them, you will find many such about Colchester: winding, narrow roads, ascending or descending and losing themselves in the shade of tall hedges and overhanging trees, through whose trunks charming glimpses are caught here and there of sunny hill sides and shady valleys, of heaven-pointing church spires, and clumps of rounded foliage, in all their varied hues and colours, and with a most pleasing diversity of harmonious light and shade. Not far from the town, and close by the village bearing their name, are the Lexeden Springs, where a choice collection of such views may be got, and from which spot I secured several sketches. One of the large shallow basin of pure, colourless and brilliant water, where the springs rise under the out-spreading boughs of some very fine trees; one, of a yet shadier nook, where the trees are more closely planted, and the glassy sheet of purely transparent water glides over gleaming, purple, green, golden, and ruby pebbles, breaking every now and then the monotonous little chattering sound with which it pursues its sparkling course with a tinkling musical splash or two; one of another spot where, diminished to a silver thread, it steals secretly amid the grass-blades, which, nevertheless, mark its way with a fresher and more brilliant green; and of yet another, where, passing under a rustic bridge, it grows bolder and broader, and flashes joyously from its sweetly quiet and beautiful little birch-place out and away in the full unshadowed glow of sunny daylight. Ah! many a happy hour, never, never to return, we spent in the scenes my memory can so imperfectly but tenderly recall; when the dear one, now no more, sat beside me with her needlework or book, and the camera began to take that place in my affections which I once thought nothing but my brushes and palette could ever fill. I can recall many such spots, the discoveries of as many never-to-be-forgotten rambles; but I have already sufficiently indicated for the purpose of our landscape photographers how rich this portion of the country is in their particular requirements, and may now turn to matters relative to my own experience in portraiture, &c.
Having procured better apparatus from one of the London dealers and so got ready for a second appearance as a Daguerreotypist, I secured apartments at a pastry cook’s, nearly opposite the little old church tower with the clock, and, in a large front room with a big window, contrived to get my pictures, not very perfectly, it is true, but so far so, that, luckily enough, I succeeded in pleasing the greater number of my patrons. At first I used to place my sitter as near the window as I could, with one white screen on the shadowed side, but finding that the contrast of equal white and equal black was too harsh and strong when the model was illuminated in this “half and half” style, soon, altered this, and placed the sitter very much farther in the room, with the face more fully towards the light, and with two white screens, one on either side. By so doing I lessened the action of the lighted parts, and obtained more even chemical results from the entire image, although the exposure was certainly more prolonged. I effected some improvements in this respect afterwards by using a metallic reflector in the place of one of the white screens.
Shortly after I came into this town, it was in all the ferment and excitement of the general election; flags were flying, bands were playing, ribbons, orange and blue, were displayed on hats, in button-holes, and bonnets; processions of carriages and equestrians were continually forming, headed by bands and banners; men bore huge printed placards stuck on poles, or hung about their necks, through the bustling thoroughfares near the committee-rooms; hot, strong, and long arguments were heard in the tap-room and parlour of every inn, strife was rife, and physical arguments were unhesitatingly taken up when moral failed; stupid, fishy-eyed yokels, husky of voice, and uncertain of step, shouted for “cheap beer,” and thin, sun-burnt, hard-handed women, shabby of dress, and hollow of cheek, cried earnestly for “cheap bread;” there were scramblings for half-pence, and burnt fingers among the eager poverty-stricken, quarrelling, and fighting scramblers, whereat gentlemanly practical jokers laughed uproariously, and their smarting victims grinned with difficulty. There was a fair allowance of bad blood split, and much good ale and wine; a good many hats were crushed, and many garments torn. Cheers and groans, applause and hisses greeted both candidates, who, of course, were both equally certain of success; many speeches were spoken, very few ere audible, even little, gleeful, ignorant children were carried away by the common spirit, and had little party squabbles over their tiny blue and orange flags, and no portion of the population were more excited, more noisy, more seemingly deeply concerned in the interests at stake, then, as usual, the dogs, which, running here, there, and everywhere in hot haste, barked, and panted, and seemed as if the whole important business of the great event was dependent solely and entirely upon their most energetic and active superintendence and inspection. There was a strong display of ancient enmity, much spite, and no littlie malice, but there was an amazing deal of talk about friendship. Well-def, fashionably-attired TRANSCRIBE AFTER NEW COPY MADE of PAGE 557.
1861: P News, Nov. 15, vol. V, #167, p. 549:
Royal Rewards to Photographers.
Humphrey’s Journal says:--“We notice that Messrs. Gurney, of Broadway, have received by a late steamer a full acknowledgment of their attention to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. It seems that they sent to the Prince an elegant photographic album containing portraits of himself and suite. The acknowledgment comes in the shape of a large gold medal, with the Prince’s head on one side, surrounded by the words, ‘Albert Edward, Prince of Wales,’ and his crest, the plume, and motto, on the other. Around the edge of the medal, which is about three-eights of an inch thick, are the words, ‘Presented to Messrs. Gurney and Son, Photographers, New York, 1860.’ Accompanying the medal are letters of thanks from Major-General Bruce, on behalf of the Prince. Messrs. Gurney have received similar letters from the Duke of Newcastle, on behalf of the Queen, and from the other members of the Prince’s suite, acknowledging the elegant portraits he has sent them.
“The following is a copy of the letter received in acknowl[edg]ment of the portraits sent to the Queen:--
“Downing Street, London, Feb. 26, 1861.
“Gentlemen,--The Queen has received the alb um and oil portrait of the Prince of Wales.
“I am commanded by Her Majesty to convey to you her thanks for these beautiful specimens of American art, and to assure you of her appreciation of the skill with which they are executed, and of the feeling which prompted you to send so interesting a souvenir of the visit of His Royal Highness to New York.—I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant, Newcastle.
“Messrs. Gurney and Son.
“Prince Alfred is now in Canada, and will be in New York shortly; then there will be a chance for more albums and more medals. Who is to be the happy man? We think it is Fredericks’ turn now, as he has got the handsomest gallery.”
1861: P News, Nov. 15, vol. V, #167, p. 550:
Talk In The Studio [selection]
PHOTOGRAPHY AT KING’S COLLEGE.—We have pleasure in announcing that Mr. George Dawson, M.A., has been appointed lecturer on photography at King’s College, in place of Mr. Sutton, resigned. Our readers are familiar with Mr. Dawson’s papers, read at the North London Society, and published in our columns. The college has secured in him an accomplished scholar, a sound chemist, and a first rate practical photographer. As he has been engaged before in the work of tuition, he is well fitted for the task he has undertaken. We can congratulate the North London Society on the circumstance, securing them the continued presence of a member whose premeditated residence in the country would have been to them a great loss.
PHOTOGRAPHS OF VOLUNTEERS.—We had recently an opportunity of inspecting a very elegant album, which, filled withy portraits of members of the London Rifle Brigade, was presented to the Lady Mayoress by Mr. D. Combe, of Cheapside, a sergeant in the corps. The album was bound in green velvet, ornamented with gold. The portraits were of those members to whom colours, bugles, and other prizes were presented on the 19th of October at the Crystal Palace. The portraits were taken by Mr. Combe, and many of them possessed much excellence. Lady Olliffe expressed herself much gratified with the present, as a gratifying souvenir of an occasion she would always remember with interest and pleasure.
EPISCOPAL PHOTOGRAPHY.—Punch says: “Dr. Thompson, the new Bishop of Gloucester, is stated to be an expert photographer. Lord Shaftesbury begs us to add that his last creation is also an ecclesiastic of the decided school, and, in fact, that all his views are positives!”
PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE EXHIBITION AT FLORENCE.—The Italian correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, whose description of, and criticisms on, the Florentine Art Exhibition, are well worth reading, makes the following remarks on the photographic department. We shall be glad if a similar verdict be recorded at South Kensington, next year:--“The photographic gallery now consists of millions. There are portraits of all sizes and shapes—landscapes, architecture, and sculpture. I really think the best pictures are from the hands of a gentleman, whose English name and title—“Warren Vernon, ‘amateur’ “—attracted my attention. Some of his landscapes are beautiful. The medals for this branch of art are not yet allotted.
CHILD POISONED IN A PHOTOGRAPHIC VAN.—On Friday evening an inquest was held by Mr. C. C. Lewis, at the Red Cow, Chapel-street, Stratford, on the body of Henry Giblett, aged two and six months. It appeared that the deceased accompanied some other persons into a photographic van in Bridge-road, Stratford, and as they were having their portraits taken he suddenly became alarmingly ill, and by the time Mr. Kennedy, the surgeon, arrived, had expired from the effects of a quantity of iodide of potassium, which it is supposed he swallowed out of a phial which was in a cupboard. The jury found an open verdict, that the child died from the effects of the poison, but how administered there was no evidence to show. Morning Chronicle.—(Cyanide of potassium is most probably meant, although the iodide is a poison.—Ed)
1861: P News, Nov. 15, vol. V, #167, p. 550:
To Correspondents. [selection]
MEMBERSHIP IN LONDON PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETIES.—We have had several enquiries recently as to the mode of becoming members of the London Photographic Societies. It is necessary to be proposed by a member, and the election is by ballot. The subscription to the parent society is a guinea a year, and a guinea entrance fee. To the North London and South London Societies the annual subscription is half a guinea.
1861: P News, Nov. 22, vol. V, #168, p. 562:
Talk In The Studio. [selection]
PHOTOGRAPHY IN A COURT OF LAW.—The Civil Tribunal of the Seine recently decided a case in which M. Edmond, a gentleman of property, was plaintiff, and Disderi and Co., the well known Paris photographers, the defendants. M. Edmond had employed the defendants to take photographs of himself in his barouche with a groom standing at his horse’s head, and had paid 100 francs for ten proofs, with the express condition that no other copies should be taken as he did not wish to be exhibited in shop windows or elsewhere. Having ascertained, however, that the defendants sold his photographs to the trade, and that the likenesses were exposed for sale in many establishments, he applied to the tribunal for authority to seize the said photographs wherever he might find them, and for an order to compel the defendants to destroy the negative from which they were printed. As M.M. Disderi did not appear to oppose the application, the tribunal at once granted the authority.
AWARD OF MEDALS.—The following award of medals was made at the close of the Photographic Exhibition in connection with the Birmingham Society:--
Silver … Portrait … Claudet
Bronze … Group … Robinson
Silver … Landscape … Bedford
Bronze … Landscape … Heath
Mudd
Silver … Solar, untouched Angel, Exeter
Bronze … Solar, coloured John Turner
Stafford Street, Birmingham
The judges recommended the society to give an extra bronze medal to Mr. C. Breese, for his stereographs, and Sir Francis E. Scott generously awards an extra prize to Mr. Rejlander for his works generally, but more especially for the likeness of a little girl (which he exchanged for the one of Prince Albert, which was withdrawn shortly after the exhibition opened), and which was of course too late for competition.
1861: P News, Nov. 29, vol. V, #169, p. 567-568:
Critical Notices. Photographs of Scenes in Perthshire, on the Thames, &c., by Vernon Heath.
We have recently had an opportunity of inspecting a series of photographs of Highland and other scenery by Mr. Heath, some of which were, we believe, a commission for her Majesty the Queen. It has rarely been our duty to examine a series of pictures so replete with all which constitutes good photography and good art. The scenery depicted abounds with those features which are at once the charm and the difficulty of photograph---foliage and water. To render either of these properly requires the highest skill and judgment, whilst to combine the two perfectly is the height of photographic success. In the pictures before us the success is complete in this respect. Almost every scene combines more or less of these features, but we may mention a view “On the Banks of the Earn,” one “On the Banks of the ‘Almond,” an “Old Mill on the Almond,” and a “Bridge over the Almond,” as very perfect examples: foliage the most crisp and detailed, water bright transparent and full of motion. A “Burn—St. Fillans,” is one of the most charming bits of rock scenery and falling water we have ever seen. In all these there is the greatest brilliancy combined with most exquisite delicacy; great vigour and relief combined with the most perfect atmospheric gradation. Too often in photography, when a picture has been praised for vigour it has suggested hardness; when praised for softness it has been suggestive of lack of brilliancy”: or, if the photographic characteristics were perfect, and it was praised for these, a suspicion of the absence of artistic elements has been created in the mind. Here, however, all the highest photographic qualities are united to a fine artistic feeling. In this respect we may especially refer to “A Peasant’s Cottage.” Here, amid characteristic scenery we have an old rustic Highland cottage: to give this value and life an old woman with her wheel sits in front of the door. “A happy accident,” some one exclaims, looking at the picture; “I never have the good luck to meet with such characteristic figures in my landscape work.” Such a person would stare when told that the cottage was found in one spot and the old woman in another, and that Mr. Heath took the old woman and her wheel several miles in a carriage in order to give life and keeping to the picture.
Judicious lighting is one of the great charms in each picture, and secures brilliancy and relief in the highest degree.
Two views on the Thames, near Maidenhead, are exquisite photographs. If it had been a matter under control something might have been desired in the composition notwithstanding that there are many elements of the picturesque. But the photography here, is perfect. A white cottage, green foliage, water, and black lock-gates are all rendered with perfect justice and fine effect. There are no white skies, a graduated tint or a natural sky being present in each picture. The printing of Mr. Heath’s pictures is the finest we are in habit of seeing.
In all cases a bromo-iodized collodion and iron development was used. Mr. Heath has promised to give a brief account of his exact formulæ and manipulations for the benefit of our readers, who will doubtless look for it with interest.
1861: P News, Nov. 29, vol. V, #169, p. 568:
Critical Notices. A Series of Cabinet Size Photographs of Places of Historical Interest in England and Scotland. By S. Thompson. A. W. Bennett.
This series consists of fifty pictures, and includes great variety of subject, most of the scenes from their own picturesque character or from historical association being full of interest. Few places, for instance, have so many charms of their own, combined with so many associations to add value to those charms, as some of the pictures which form a “Waverley Series” in this collection; the varied views of Abbotsford, Melrose, and Dryburgh, constituting, as Mr. Thompson phrases it, “the home, the favourite haunt, and the last resting-place of the Minstrel of the North.” Here is the tomb of the bard, novelist, and historian, within the ruins of Dryburgh. It is one of the pictures which pleases us best. Mr. Thompson has been embued with the sentiment of the place, and has embodied much poetry in this photograph. We must confess we should not have admired a brilliant sparkling piece of photographer here: we have, instead as picture full of tender solemn repose; low in tone, but with fine, although somber chiaroscura. We would suggest but one alteration, which can easily be made in printing: in vignetting such a subject the form of the gothic arch should not be repeated at the base, or, if done at all, care should be taken to make the repetition less regular.
A series of views of Oxford, contains come of the best pictures. A view of the High Street is very fine, the point of view well chosen, the composition good, and the atmospheric effect very fine. A view of the High street and Queen’s College is another good picture. “The Martyr’s Memorial” is also a good composition. It is a little defaced by the spectral figure of a man, who has planted himself in the foreground exactly in front of the middle of the erection, and through whose unsubstantial body the railings which surround, and the steps which lead up to the monument, are clearly visible.
A “Series of Reproductions” contains copies of some very choice engravings, very carefully and skilfully executed, rendering with great delicacy all that is in the originals.
All the pictures we have examined are carefully executed: many of them are very fine, and exhibit judgment and taste. There are, however, one or two very palpable faults in some of them, which it would be unfair not to allude to. The first is the exceedingly unsuitable light in which some of the negatives have been taken, which gives a flat, tame, picture, without either brilliancy or relief; the manipulation is careful, the definition good, and all but the lighting is satisfactory. Another fault is in the mode of vignetting some of the prints, in which a hard abrupt line is manifest, where imperceptible gradation should have been present. We point out these faults for future avoidance, and do not wish to be understood as referring to nearly all; as many of the series comprise choice subjects, fine composition, and good photography.
1861: P News, Nov. 29, vol. V, #169, p. 568-569:
GET PAGE 569
Critical Notices. Painted Backgrounds, Set-Scenes, and Profile Accessories.
We have recently had our attention called to a series of appliances for the photographer of a somewhat novel character, and which have been rendered necessary or desirable, by what has been termed the “cardomania.” The appliances to which we refer, are the productions of the scene-painter, and are the work of Messrs. Bull, Brothers, of Great Queen Street.
There can be no question that the peculiar style of portrait which has become popular in album pictures, has given license for, if it has not rendered imperative, a much wider range of accessory and scenic affect, than would be permissible in the sober simplicity which should distinguish miniatures generally. This fact admitted, it will follow without question that fitness, keeping, and variety, should always distinguish these accessories. The backgrounds and profiles of Messrs. Bull, are, if selected and used with judgment pre-eminently well fitted to supply the requirement which this new and popular style of portraiture has created in the photographer’s equipment.
Of painted backgrounds, we have seen a very choice selection with a great variety of subjects, representing interiors, close scenes, and open landscapes. These are all well drawn and carefully executed with a view to photographic effect. The greatest novelty, however, consists in a series of ingeniously contrived accessories in profile, arranged so as to combine with each other in almost endless variety. Columns and pedestals of every order, balustrades and vases, book-cases, chimney-pieces, writing-tables, &c. As may be easily conceived, accessories in this form admit of a variety of effect which it would be impossible to obtain by any mode of combining the actual furniture of the studio. One of the first questions which will arise to the mind of the artistic photographer will be as to the possibility of combining painted accessories so as to secure anything like true perspective, and light and shadow. It may be stated that the entire value of such adjuncts will consist in the ingenuity with which these difficulties have been met in contriving the series, and in the skill with which they may be arranged by the photographer. Messrs. Bull have done their part of the work with much judgment and forethought, and if an equal amount of ability be shown in using the profiles there will be no danger of incongruous effects. Each piece is contrived to stand alone, and to fit to all the rest. A pedestal may be used alone, or surmounted by a column, or by a vase; or joined to a balustrade, &c., the drawing, light, and shadow being in all cases made to correspond. For interiors, the chimney-piece may be surmounted with a clock, or chimney-glass, &c.; a book-case, writing-table, or other adjunct of the library may be combined. A piece of well managed drapery will often be found very valuable in GET REST
1861: P News, Nov. 29, vol. V, #169, p. 574:
Talk in the Studio: [selection]
BIRMINGHAM PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION.—In our announcement of the prizes in connection with this Exhibition, we referred to it as closed. This was an error into which we had been led by the statements of some correspondents. It is not yet closed, but will be on Saturday. Contributors will then be able to receive back their pictures.
PHOTOGRAPHS OF RACES.—A correspondent informs us that Lord Canning has ordered a collection of photographs to be made of the various races in India. Such a collection, carefully executed will possess great ethnological value.
THE FLORENCE EXHIBITION.—The Italian correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says:--The medals for photography are now given, and the “full length” of the King, of which I have before spoken, is at the top of the list. Duroni, of Milan, has the best portraits; Mr. Warren Vernon the best landscapes. A man from Perugia has also some good likenesses. The King has bought the fine pictures of the Colosseum and the Capitol, sent from Rome. Much more justice might have been done to this branch of science had the light been more considered. The photographs are displayed in a semicircular gallery, without the least regard to their shape, size, or their lights and shades. It is a fine collection.
1861: P News, Nov. 29, vol. V, #169, p. 574:
To Correspondents. [selection]
--W. H. Warner.—the prints are received, and shall be handed over to the Society at the next meeting. The “Two Bridges” is very charming.
1861: P News, Dec. 6, vol. V, #170, p. 575-576:
Photographs by Moonlight.
We recently called the attention of our readers to an article in La Lumière, in which our notice of Mr. Breese’s moonlight pictures was regarded as a “puff of the work of some rich English lord.” The article, with its array of figures to prove that moonlight pictures were impossible, was amusing rather than otherwise, and reminded us of an answer said to be given by a Frenchman, who having pursued with great volubility an argument similar to that of Mr. Gaudin, was told that “facts were against him.” His answer was: “So much the worse for the facts.” We related the thing as un fait accompli. M. Gaudin contended it could not be done. We stated the circumstance as a fact: he responded that it did not accord with any theory he knew, and was, therefore, impossible. As we were not in possession of Mr. Breese’s method of working, we did not enter into any discussion of the theoretical question, but contented ourselves by re-stating what Mr. Breese said was a fact, adding that the pictures bore evidence of the truth of the statement; and suggested to M. Gaudin more caution in asserting what was possible or impossible in a science like photography. These remarks, M. Gaudin referring to the subject again, chose to regard as “virulent,” and as we do not at any time care to bandy hard words with our contemporaries, we were content to let the matter pass without further notice.
At this stage of affairs, however, the matter is taken up by our Liverpool contemporary, who steps in as moderator, and suggests that the whole difference arises our of an error of nomenclature. As we cannot in any sense allow the truth of his explanation, which appears to be made without having sufficiently remembered the case as stated, we must once more refer to the facts. We must first make an extract from the remarks of our contemporary. Referring to M. Gaudin’s article he credits him with giving—
“Very philosophical reasons for concluding that in the present state of chemical knowledge, it would be impossible to produce a bonâ fide ‘moonlight’ view. While equally convinced of the correctness of this conclusion, we did not, like M. Gaudin, attribute the assertion made to mendacity, but to some misapprehension. . . . It turns out that the pictures to which allusion was made are instantaneous stereographs of the moon—a very different affair to instantaneous moonlight views, for by all the ordinary rules of language the latter designation would apply only to views illuminated by the reflected light from the moon’s surface. Of course, Mt. Breese is not responsible for the erroneous nomenclature. We might take a negative of the flame of a candle, but we should not, therefore, be able to take a candle-light view. We cannot doubt that Mr. Breese has made some very considerable advance in exaltation of chemical sensitiveness as the production even of instantaneous lunar images evinces; and we sincerely regret that from so droll an error of language he has been subjected to so much suspicion.”
We have simply and emphatically to deny that there is any ground for this solution of the case, or that there is any such error in nomenclature. The authority quoted for such an explanation is a letter from Mr. Brown, secretary of the Birmingham Society, another page of the same journal. On referring to this letter we find that the term “moonlight views” is repeatedly used, but there is also on one occasion the phrase “instantaneous views of the moon,” and upon the suggestion conveyed in this phrase our good friend, the editor of the British Journal, not having seen the pictures, jumps to the conclusion above indicated.
In the original criticism which has given rise to all this discussion, and which contained, we believe, the first public notice of these pictures, we were very careful in describing exactly of what they consisted, and gave just such information as to their mode of production as we received from Mr. Breese. We here quote from our description given at the time:--
“There were three pictures rendering moonlight effects. One is a moonlit sea, with the play of the moonbeams on the water. Another is the moon itself in the midst of a mass of cumulose clouds, which are tipped with silver, and rendered more or less transparent throughout by the moon’s light. The third is an interior with the figure of a lady looking out of the window, through which is seen a moonlit sky. The figure traced by a well-marked line of light. The white lace sleeve on the arm which rests upon a table underneath the window is well made out, as is also the polished surface of the table reflecting the moonlight.”
A description in nearly the same words appeared shortly afterwards in our contemporary’s own pages. How, therefore, he can now suggest that the term moonlight scenes is a “droll error of language,” and the cause of the misunderstanding, we are at a loss to conceive. We must, however, distinctly repeat it, these stereographs are views of objects professedly illuminated by the light of the moon, and not simply views of the moon itself. They are decidedly what we have described them to be, or we, and all to whom they have been shown, are the victims of a gross imposture, a thought which since we have met Mr. Breese we have never for one moment entertained. In regard to their instantaneity a word or two may be necessary. We have never described them as instantaneous. That, we believe, is a little modification originating with M. Gaudin. The terms we used in speaking of them were that Mr. Breese stated that they had required “little more than instantaneous exposure.” In order to do him full justice, we may add that he has since informed us that one portion of the interior, which was from two negatives, had an exposure of about seven minutes, whilst the other portion was really instantaneous. We may add that since our notice first appeared, we had had more than one communication from correspondents who have attempted moonlight pictures, and one who states that he recently obtained a negative of the moon and surrounding clouds, with a simple bromo-iodized collodion and iron development. M. Gaudin tells us that to obtain a photographic image of moonlit clouds, would require an exposure three hundred thousand times as long as would be necessary in sunlight. Regarding such a question, we are simply inclined to quote the old paradox, “There is nothing so false as facts—except figures!”
We shall not make any comment upon the “philosophical” character of M. Gaudin’s reasons, in which our contemporary joins him, for concluding that “in the present state of chemical knowledge it would be impossible to produce a bonâ fide ‘moonlight’ view,” because it has never been stated that these views were produced by the aid of “the present state of chemical knowledge;” but, on the contrary, it has been distinctly claimed by Mr. Breese that it was by the aid of a secret which was in advance of “the present state of chemical knowledge”—a circumstance unhesitatingly admitted in another part of the same article.
Since the above remarks were written, Mr. Brown has forwarded a letter to the Photographic Society of London on this subject, which will be found in our report of the last meeting in another page. In this letter it will be seen that a similar description of the pictures is given to that which first appeared in our pages, and a promise is made of bringing the subject, together with specimens, before an early meeting.
It may be necessary to explain the allusion which terminates Mr. Brown’s letter, having reference to Mr. Cramb, of Glasgow. Some remarks in a nonsensical article by that gentleman, and some other remarks he made at a meeting of the Glasgow Society, cotained unjust and untrue strictures on the Birmingham Exhibition generally, and Mr. Breese’s pictures particularly. The fact of being uttered in a respectable society, and printed in a respectable journal, gave sufficient amount of importance to these remarks to induce Mr. Brown to forward to the same journal a dignified refutation of the charges, and a proper comment on what he terms, “a class of men who occasionally act as the self-appointed judges of works they evidently cannot appreciate.”
1861: P News, Dec. 6, vol. V, #170, p. 586:
Talk In The Studio. [selection]
SOUTH LONDON PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.—The next monthly meeting of this Society will be held at St. Peter’s School-room, Walworth Road, on the evening of Thursday next, when a paper will be read by Mr. Valentine Blanchard.
PHOTOGRAPHIC EXCHANGE CLUB.—The referees met last Monday evening for the purpose of examining and classifying the specimens forwarded. A large number of prints of very varied character passed through their hands. We shall have something to say on the subject in our next.
M. JOUBERT’S ENAMEL PHOTOGRAPHS.—M. Joubert had the honour of attending at Buckingham Palace a few days ago, for the purpose of exhibiting specimens of his photographic transparencies enameled on glass, to Her Majesty and the Prince Consort. Her Majesty and His Royal Highness expressed themselves highly pleased with the pictures, several of which they ordered.
PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE DRAMA.—For the first time, to our recollection, photography has been made an important element in working out a dramatic plot. In Mr. Dion Boucicault’s new “sensation” drama, the octoroon, now performing at the Adelphi, a photograph is made the Deus ex machine for detecting a murderer. A camera containing an excited Daguerreotype plate being within range of the scene, a portrait of the criminal is secured. How the plate is developed we have not learnt, such accounts of the plot as we have seen being silent on this point. At an early opportunity we must inquire further. Possibly the author is aware of a self-developing process!
ROBBERY AT M. SILVY’S.—Francesco Bianchi, Italian, residing at No. 11, Conduit Place, and described on the charge-sheet as a secretary, was charged on Saturday last at the Marylebone Police Court with stealing from No. 38, Porchester Terrace, since the 14th instant, fifteen gross of cartes de visite, thirty photograph copies of the “Beauties of England,” being portraits of some of our most eminent ladies, twenty other photographs, two miniature cases, and other articles, to the value of £91, the property of Camille Silvy, who deposed that on the 25th he heard that some of his pictures had been offered for sale without his consent or knowledge. Some things were brought to his house, which he identified as belonging to himself, and which he had not missed. He was a photographic artist, and prisoner was employed by him. Vincent Silvani and Angelo Anguissola, Italians, were both called into the box, but their evidence could not be understood, as they spoke English so badly. Pink, 85 D, stated that he received information from the prosecutor that a number of his valuable photographs, which had not yet been published, were being sold in London, and that they must have been stolen. From inquiries he made he saw Bianchi go into No. 156, Bond-street, where he offered several pictures for sale. That (Saturday) morning he again saw him in the Edgware-road, after which he went to Anguissola’s residence in Marylebone-lane, where he was followed by the officer, who found a large number of prints there. The officer took possession of these, and in company of the two witnesses went to the prosecutor’s house, where they pointed out the prisoner as the party who offered them the photographs for sale. The prisoner then said he was guilty; that he had stolen them because his wife had been writing from abroad for money. He was then taken to the station and charged. Prisoner was remanded for the attendance of an interpreter.
1861: P News, Dec. 20, vol. V, #172, p. 610:
Talk In The Studio. [selection]
PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT.—the paternal Government of the Vatican has just issued two edicts of rather a peculiar description. One, which forbids tailors, tailoresses, and milliners to work on fête days, and the keepers of “ristoranti” and easting-houses to serve any food except that of the most “maigre” kind on those holy days. To appreciate the inconvenience of this despotic order, it must be remembered that for the next six months there will be on an average two of these fasts out of each week, besides the “muckle fast they ca’ Sunday.” The second order relates to the art of “photography,” and so great are the pains to suppress this useful science, and so lengthy the clauses of the police regulations on the subject, that the “New Zealander” (supposing him to have come to Rome to try his prentice hand on the Coliseum) might well suppose it to be the “black art” itself. While the police is occupied in this moral and religious work, robbery is rampant and murder of daily occurrence. Between the 10th and 20th of last month there were seven cases of stabbing in the streets of Rome. But perhaps if the police had prevented these crimes, or traced out the authors of them, religion might in the mean time have been scandalised by a tailor gaining five paul, and therefore dining off meat on a fast day, and decency outraged by the display in a shop window of a photograph of the Venus of the Capitol, or the Apollo Belvidere.—Daily Telegraph
CORONATION PHOTOGRAPHS.—The Times says:--Messrs. L. Haasse [sic] and Co., of Berlin, Photographers to the Court, were honoured at the time of the recent coronation of the King of Prussia, with sittings from the Imperial and Royal guests, ambassadors, and other personages of high note present at the ceremony. These coronation photographs consist of five groups, divided into nationalities, the leading representative of each nation being a distinct group of his own. Thus there is a group of his Imperial Highness the Grand Duke of Russia and ten persons, another of Lord Clarendon and nine personages, another of the duke of Magenta and suite, &c. The series form an interesting momento of the coronation. There are two series, one on a large scale to form an album, the other in the carte-de-visite form. The latter, which we have seen, do great credit to Messrs. Hasse [sic] and Co.
1861: P News, Dec. 27, vol. V, #173, p. 617:
Miscellaneous [selection]
PHOTOGRAPHIC AIDS TO PHYSIOGNOMY.—It is equally true that with such portraits and engravings of portraits as we have had, it has been utterly impossible to get beyond the nebulous science of a Lavater. We required the photograph. Certainly it looks a hard thing to say that the great portrait-painters are not to be trusted. Is it to be supposed that these masters did not know their business, and have failed to give us correct likenesses of the persons who sat to [sic] them? It must be remembered that to give a general likeness is one of the easiest strokes of art. With half-a-dozen lines the image is complete, as anyone may see in the million wood-engravings of the day; while, at the same time it would be difficult to gather from these rough sketches, where two dots go for the eyes and a scratch for the mouth, what is the precise anatomy of any one feature. So, while we can accept as in the main truthful, the portraits that have come down to us, it is impossible to place perfect reliance on any particular lineament. Take the upper lip, for example. This is perhaps the feature of the face which not only the portrait-painters, but likewise all the copiers of the human form, have most trifled with. We can often accept the lower lip that they give, but the upper is a myth. Then of this upper lip, we can sometimes rest content with the corners, the artist looking chiefly to these for the expression, but of the middle part we can never be certain, except in the knowledge that nineteen times out of twenty it is false. There is a form of this part somewhat like a Cupid’s bow, which is considered the most beautiful, and which the painters are always repeating. The centre of its upper line comes down to a sharp point, and the centre of its under lines falls into a point rather less sharp, and forming a little ball or drop that sometimes delicately clasps the lower lip, sometimes (especially in Raffaelle’s heads) hangs loose above it, and parted from it. From these two points the lines sweep away on either side in two pairs of ogee curves, which are now and then caricatured (very frequently by Vandyke) in the undulations of the moustache above. Such is Raffaelle’s favourite lip: he hardly ever has a face without it. One would fancy that all the people of Vandyke’s acquaintance had it. Kneller is great in it; so is Fuseli. Sir Thomas Lawrence gives it with a vengeance to all his sitters—curling the curves, and making the little drop in the centre almost drip. The painters are never satisfied without it, and give it to all their heads alike—to Cortes as well as to Cervantes, to Descartes as well as to Shakespeare, to Arkwright not less than to Schiller and Goethe. What the painters do badly, the engravers do worse; and so this lovely lip is rendered vulgar and meaningless. Belonging to a few, and that few a defined class, it is represented as the common property of all. Nothing short of the photograph can correct this uncertainly, and make the physiognomist feel that he is on sure ground. The photographs produced by such men as Mayall, Dickenson, Silvy, and Watkin leave little to be desired. Nothing more truthful, and nothing cheaper. A collection of good portraits is now within everybody’s means; and everybody is making a collection. Let us hope that something will one day come of these numerous collections.—Cornhill Magazine.
1861: P News, Dec. 27, vol. V, #173, p. 617-618:
Talk In The Studio [selection]
THE SALE AT M. SILVY’S.—An auction sale of photographic effects is somewhat a novelty; the announcement of one did not, however, attract many known photographers, and the few we observed present seemed to have been drawn rather by the desire to see the premises of a gentleman who—notwithstanding the inquiry of the President of the Photographic Society, “Who is Silvy?”—has acquired one of the most extensive photographic connections throughout the country, and a reputation European in its extent. A royal album he showed us recently contained portraits he had taken of members of almost every royal family on the Continent. The large premises behind the house present the aspect at this moment rather of a builder’s yard than anything else, in consequence of extensive alterations and increased appliances for the coming year. The day before the sale about a thousand negatives were in course of printing amidst this chaos. The effects offered for sale were chiefly the residue of apparatus, specimens, &c., which M. Silvy had received from Caldesi and Montecchi, in purchasing the business of them two or three years ago. It was somewhat amusing to hear the auctioneer, in offering the goods, commending them as of “tried quality,” forgetting to add, however, and “rejected.” Some of the articles sold were doubtless of good quality, and many were of that character which will, somehow or other, accumulate in every studio of any standing, cumbering it without adding to its efficiency. Many of the articles sold for singular small prices, and many others for sums much higher, we apprehend, than their original cost. An 8-inch French single lens, for instance, sold for £30, a sum which struck us as excessively high for an unnamed, untried, unguaranteed lens, without even its focal length stated. Some excellently executed coloured specimens sold for much less than the value of the frames. The proceeds were, we believe, in round numbers, about £180.
TURNER’S “LIBER STUDIORUM.”-- The Athnœum says:--“The series of photographs fro Turner’s Liber Studiorum, published by Messrs. Cundall and Downes, would be more valuable if extended to embrace the whole number of seventy-one drawings made by the artist towards the one hundred of his original intention. Many more of these works are, we understand, in possession of the Trustees of the National Gallery than those already reproduced from the series at South Kensington Is there any reason why the photographed Liber should not be completed for the benefit of the public and artists? Renewed examination of the series has strengthened our conviction that these marvellous works should be disseminated in the widest possible range. The publishers deserve credit for what they have done towards this end; and, aided by public authority, we hope they may complete the series in question. [”]
THE GORILLA LECTURING ON MR. SPURGEON.—The London Stereoscopic Company have just issued a clever little pictorial jeu d’esprit in the form of an album-photograph, representing an excited gorilla lecturing to an audience of still more excited gorillas. The subject of his lecture is a dissenting preacher, who it is well-known has acquired a certain kind of celebrity by lecturing on apes and vermin. A sculptured bust of this gentlemen [sic] is placed upon the table before the oratorical gorilla who rests one hand on the head, whilst the other is extended in characteristic fashion. The date of the scene is supposed to be A.D. 5862. Behind the lecturer is “an ancient engraving: date, 1862,” representing a well-known portrait of the preacher. The origin of this quizzical sketch is indicated in a quotation from the speech of Mr. Layard, in which he refers to the possibility in “after ages of having a gorilla lecturing on Mr. Spurgeon.” In the attempts to produce something funny the art has often been prostituted to purposes with which, as we have before declared, we have no sympathy. We think in this case, however, there is “fair game” in the circumstances. The photographic effect, however managed, is very clever.