DATING VICTORIAN PHOTOGRAPHY

BA small group of members listened to the well known speaker Tom Doig as he took us through the progress of photography from the days of cave dwelling paintings & the true ‘photo’ when hands were placed on cave walls & drawn around –a true likeness then as photos are today. He reminded us of our school experiments with photographic paper, leaves & sunlight. Tom spoke of the work of people like Josiah Wedgewood & Humphrey Davy & their attempts to put pictures on plates using soot & silver salts, the 12 hour exposure times needed & the lack of success in keeping the ‘photos’ for more than a few minutes in the light.
We heard how the first photos in negative form were put onto glass & then backed by black mastic. This, by optical illusion turned the photograph to a positive.
Tom showed several slides of photos taken during the years 1840 –1900. He described the poses & the equipment such as neck braces & tables used to keep the subject still during the exposure time, which would be for several minutes, & how from what we could see the date could be worked out.
In later years the backs of photographs were used to advertise the photographer’s patronage, his address, the negative number etc, all of which changed gradually with time. We heard descriptions of various photo frames & how they were made up with such items as silver fillets & various shaped board frames sprayed gold, the tooling of the surrounding leather & the impressed hinged covers made by rolling through a mangle, a mixture of coal dust, milk & sulphuric acid which was then left to harden in the sun. We were able to see such a cover on an old album brought in by a member. The frames they were set in, as well as the style of photo & sometimes the dress of the people could also help to assess the dates of photos.
At the end of his talk Tom had a group of members & visitors at his table discussing their own photos.
[Barbara Holmes]