Robert Adamson (photographer)
Robert Adamson (born April 26, 1821 in Burnside , Scotland , † January 14, 1848 in St Andrews ) was a Scottish chemist and photographer. With his partner David Octavius Hill , he is one of the pioneers of photography.
Life
Robert Adamson was the son of the Burnside farmer Alexander Adamson. He had learned about the calotype through his brother John and the physicist David Brewster of St Andrews University . Encouraged by his brother and by the fact that Fox Talbot had not asserted his patent rights for the calotype process in Scotland, he opened his own portrait studio in Edinburgh in 1843. In the same year the Scottish landscape and portrait painter David Octavius Hill approached him and hired him. Hill wanted to paint the inaugural meeting of the Scottish Free Church with 457 church representatives and have calotypes created as a template for the monumental painting. The individuals were recorded outdoors in natural surroundings and sometimes posed with various props (draped tables, flower decorations, and the like). Because of the slow process, recording required approximately two minutes of standing still in sunlight.
A joint photo studio emerged from this collaboration. Between 1500 and 3000 calotypes were created in the period up to 1848, depicting portraits as well as city and landscape views and scenes from everyday life. Most of the recordings were signed “recorded by R. Adamson under the artistic direction of D. O. Hill”.
After the early death of Adamson, who died of a serious illness at the age of 27, Hill returned to painting.
Hills painting from the inaugural meeting of the Scottish Free Church, 1843
Fisherwives in St. Andrews
Fisherwives in Newhaven
literature
- Bodo von Dewitz, Karin Schuller-Procopovici (eds.): Hill & Adamson. From the beginnings of artistic photography in the 19th century . Exhibition catalog, Steidl, 2000, ISBN 3-88243-749-9
- John Ward, Sara Stevenson: Printed Light: Scientific Art of William Henry Fox Talbot and David Octavius Hill with Robert Adamson . Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Edinburgh 1986, ISBN 0-11-493124-0 (English)
- Newhall, Beaumont: History of Photography, Munich 1984, p. 46. ISBN 3-88814-319-5
Web links
- Exhibition catalog in Steidl-Verlag
- One hundred calotype sketches by DO Hill and R. Adamson in the British Library (English)
- Robert Adamson (photographer) at photography-now.com
- Robert Adamson in Google Arts & Culture
Individual evidence
- ^ Robert Adamson in: Microsoft Encarta . Divergent sources such as the International Photography Hall of Fame ( January 6, 2016 memento in the Internet Archive ) indicate St Andrews.
- ↑ Michel Frizot: New History of Photography , Könemann, 1998, p. 64.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Adamson, Robert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Scottish chemist and photographer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 26, 1821 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Burnside (Scotland) |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 14, 1848 |
| Place of death | St Andrews |