James Wallace Black
James Wallace Black (born February 10, 1825 in Francestown , New Hampshire , † January 5, 1896 in Cambridge , Massachusetts ), also known as JW Black, was an early American professional photographer whose career was characterized by innovation and experimentation with the new technology . He lived and worked in Boston .
After trying his luck as a painter, he turned to photography, initially as a plate polisher for the daguerreotype . He soon teamed up with John Adams Whipple , a prolific Boston photographer and inventor.
Black's large Boston studio held the copyright on a famous recording by slavery opponent John Brown . This was created in May 1859, almost six months before his attempt to instigate a slave revolt at Harpers Ferry failed . (The shot is commonly attributed to Black, but it is possible that he acquired the negative along with another photographer's discontinued studio.)
On October 13, 1860, Black took the first successful aerial photo in America with the aeronaut Samuel A. King . This is at the same time the oldest aerial photo of a city, as well as the oldest surviving aerial photo of all, as the photos taken only two years earlier by the French photographer Nadar from the balloon were lost. Black photographed Boston 350 meters from King's Queen of the Air balloon . One of the 8 recordings was successful. The photographer gave her the caption "Boston As The Eagle and Wild Goose See". Aerial photography was then used very quickly by the Union Army in the Civil War for aerial reconnaissance.
Black later became an expert on magic lantern , a candlelit forerunner of today's slide projector. In the late 1870s, Black mainly produced magic lantern slides, including famous pictures from the Boston fire in 1872.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Merrill D. Peterson: John Brown: The Legend Revisited. University of Virginia Press 2004. ISBN 978-0-8139-2308-6 . P. 75.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Black, James Wallace |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Black, JW |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American professional photographer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 10, 1825 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Francestown , New Hampshire |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 5, 1896 |
| Place of death | Cambridge , Massachusetts |