John Benjamin Stone

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Sir (John) Benjamin Stone (born February 9, 1838 in Aston Birmingham , † July 2, 1914 in Erdington ) was a British industrialist , politician and photographer .

Life

He was the son of Benjamin Stone, the owner of a glass manufactory in Aston Manor born and went to King Edward's School, Birmingham . After Sir (John) Benjamin Stone junior owned the factory , it became known as Stone, Fawdry and Stone . He was also a partner in the Smith, Stone and Knight company , which operated large paper mills in and around Birmingham.

In 1867 he married Jane Parker , the daughter of Peter Parker from Lethersdale in Yorkshire . They had four sons and two daughters together. Just a few days after him, his wife Jane died on July 6, 1914.

Stone was a businessman , philanthropist , judge , politician, collector, and photographer. In 1892, on the recommendation of the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury , Stone was raised to the gentry as a knight and was allowed to use the nobility predicate Sir as a prefix before the first name.

Collector

His interests were in history , literature and photography . He started collecting as a young man. His interest in antiques and the natural and social sciences led him to purchase photographs of his time in the formats carte de visite and carte cabinet and stereoscopes .

Stone’s income earned him the privilege of traveling extensively. He published his travel notes under the titles A Summer Holiday in Spain , 1873 and Children in Norway , 1882. He described his tour of Japan, wrote a fairy tale for children and a historical treatise on Lichfield Cathedral in Canterbury . He collected photographs to illustrate his own textbooks and travelogues , and out of a historical interest he made it his business to document the radical changes brought about by industrialization . In order to be able to create an extensive photographic archive, he founded the National Photographic Record Association around 1895 . With his way of systematic indexing of photographic documents was a trailblazer for documentary photography .

Photographic technique and topics

Mark Twain at the House of Commons by Sir (John) Benjamin Stone (2)
Indian Military Representatives Attending the Coronation of King Edward VII by Sir (John) Benjamin Stone

Around 1888 Stone began to take photos himself, as the quality of the photographs available for sale was no longer sufficient for his purposes.

Since he had switched from the usual wet collodion process to the dry gelatin process early on , he was able to take advantage of the new process, which consisted of the shelf life of the photo plates before exposure and development. At his home in Erdington The Grange Stone employed two photo lab technician full time to develop the photographic plates and had reprint.

His approximately 22,000 photos and 50 volumes of collected images are now kept in the Birmingham Central Library and are owned by the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum .

In 1891 Sir Benjamin went on a world tour with a Kodak No. 2 (the successor to the legendary Kodak No. 1 ), a hand-held camera that was equipped with a (dry roll film with 8.89 cm diagonal). Since George Eastman sold the so-called snapshot photography with the slogan You press the button and we do the rest at the same time , it didn't take long for Stone to be nicknamed Sir Snapshot . In 1890 he made a trip to Brazil with the Royal Astronomical Society, where he made remarkable recordings of a solar eclipse . There he is said to have persuaded several rebels who were about to fire on a post hotel to pose with their weapons for a picture. Sir Benjamin has also been to the British West Indies , South Africa , Syria , Egypt and Palestine, and Japan .

He chose portraits and group portraits, street scenes, places in and around Westminster as his subject. Historical buildings, especially churches, mansions and parliamentary or royal festivities recur in his work. As a member of the House of Commons, he had access to places and celebrations that were normally inaccessible to photographers. He took on Windsor Castle and Westminster Abbey . At the Houses of Parliament , he not only took photos of the building, but also of the staff, members and important visitors. He was appointed as the official photographer for the coronations of Edward VII in 1901 and George V in 1910. This quickly made him known as a royal photographer.

Offices and memberships

Exhibitions

  • 2007: Sir Benjamin Stone's Parliamentary Pictures National Portrait Gallery , London
  • 2007: Festivals, Ceremonies and Customs: Sir Benjamin Stone and the National Photographic Record , Victoria and Albert Museum, London
  • 1977: 150 years of photography documenta 6 , Kassel

literature

  • A Record of England: Sir Benjamin Stone and the National Photographic Record Association 1897-1910. ISBN 1-904587-37-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ guidedogs: Knight of the Camera ( Memento from October 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Retrieved June 2, 2013 (English)
  2. ↑ Carl Chinn Stone, Sir (John) Benjamin (1838–1914) ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Accessed June 2, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.imagesofengland.org.uk
  3. ↑ Sir Benjamin Stone & the National Photographic Record Association.Retrieved June 2, 2013.
  4. ↑ S ir Benjamin Stone: the man whose passion inspired a remarkable photo collection Retrieved June 2, 2013 (English)
  5. ↑ A historical heritage ( Memento from June 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on February 2, 2016 (English)
  6. ↑ Terry Grimley: Stone one of the photography greats Retrieved June 2, 2013 (English)
  7. ↑ Sir Benjamin Stone Retrieved June 2, 2013 (English)
  8. ↑ Images of England ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Accessed June 2, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.imagesofengland.org.uk

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Stone, John Benjamin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stone, Benjamin; Sir Snapshot (nickname); Stone, Sir Benjamin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British industrialist, politician, Member of the House of Commons and photographer
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH Aston
DATE OF DEATH July 2, 1914
Place of death Erdington