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History of Photography

Falkirk Camera Club

History of Photography

Film based photography, with which most of us began, evolved from a series of discoveries made over several hundred years. The Camera Obscura was known to 11th century Arabs and several hundred years later it is thought that Painters such as Canaletto(1697 - 1768) used small, showboxed sized Camera Obscuraʼs for topographical accuracyduring the creation of their work. Further information can be found at
www.nationalgallery.org.uk

In 1802 Thomas Wedgewood, son of Josiah Wedgewood the potter, presented research on Sun Prints to the Royal Institution. He acknowledged that he had only discovered halfthe process but it was still a very signiﬁcant presentation. Not long afterwards in 1827 aFrenchman, Joseph Neipce made a breakthrough in ʻﬁxingʼ an image so that it would notfade. He died soon after in 1832 but had formed a partnership with Louise Daguerre whoproduced ʻtintypes”. They were small and easily carried but had the disadvantage of being........... printed on to tin, you can often ﬁnd them at Antiques Fairs.
This chain of events culminated with William Henry Fox Talbot producing his Calotype at his family home, Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire. He presented his paper to the Royal Societyin 1839 and Fox Talbot had looked beyond the scientiﬁc process and considered the actualapplications of Photography. For example, when Thomas Cook was bringing his Personal Tours to Scotland, Fox Talbot thought that Cook could use photographs of Scotland to sellhis Tours. Lacock Abbey is now a National Trust property and you will ﬁnd information at
www.nationaltrust.org.uk

In 1843, The Free Church broke away from the Church of Scotland and David Octavius Hill was commissioned to paint the signing of their Deed Of Demission. David Brewster atSt Andrews University introduced Hill to Robert Adamson, a professional Calotypist, suggesting that photography might be an aid to Hillʼs painting. That partnership of Hill & Adamson produced remarkable images of life in Scotland over a 5 year period but endedwith Adamsons death in 1848 aged only 27. You can ﬁnd examples of their collaberation atthe website of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery www.nationalgalleries.org This is the home of the Scottish national photographic collection and the site of regular photographicexhibitions, both national and international. You will also ﬁnd their work at www.edinphoto.org.uk along with a history of photography in the Edinburgh area.
The Calotype evolved into Frederick Scott Archers Wet Collodian process, with which Roger Fenton photographed the Crimean War, and that process evolved into the Dry Collodian process where the Glass Plate as allowed to dry before use.
Sir James Clerk Maxwell demonstrated the ﬁrst colour photograph to the Royal Institutionin 1861, just 59 years after Wedgewoods presentation, although photography would be primarily Black & White for many years. Hill & Adamson had started a tradition of Scottish Photography, which remains to this day, and in the 1870ʼs Thomas Annan photographed the slums of Glasgow. George Eastman presented his ﬁrst Kodak camera in 1872 and his “you press the button we do the rest” approach popularised photography

The Victoria & Albert Museum at www.vam.ac.uk has a particularly interesting section onthe history of photography while the The National Media Museum in Bradford www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk incorporates a signiﬁcant photographic collectionalongside a history of radio and television. The aim of The Royal Photographic Society is to promote the art and science of photography, ﬁnd them at www.rps.org The Photographers Gallery, www.photonet.org covers historical archives to emerging talentand is well worth visiting when you are in London.

Falkirk Camera Club History

The ﬁrst consumer Digital cameras were introduced in the early nineteen nineties althoughFilm remained the preferred medium. Sales of Digital cameras began to grow during thelast 2 years of the decade and by 2004 cameras using ﬁlm were disappearing.
We are currently researching photography in Falkirk and would be interested in any information which any visitors to our site may be able to provide, please email aCommittee member. We know that the Falkirk, Grangemouth and Larbert Directory for 1897-1898 refers to the Falkirk Amateur Photographic Association and that they met in Clubrooms in Newmarket Street, Falkirk.
The President, at that time, was George Sherriff of Carronvale, Larbert. The Vice Presidentwas Hugh Johnston. The Secretary was John Higgins of High Street (we assume Falkirk) and the Assistant Secretary was George Boyd of Camelon. The Treasurer was W.C.Murray of Arnothill Gardens, Falkirk.
We know that Falkirk Camera Club met during the 1930ʼs and we are honoured to have one member, Mr Rex McFarlane, an occasional visitor at that time who later joined in 1948, following service in WWII, and has been a member ever since. The club met for some years in Falkirk Council premises in High Station Road, spent a short time inCallendar Park College, then spent some years in the Red Cross Hall in Burnhead Lanebefore moving to our current site in 1990. The earliest Syllabus we have is relatively recent, season 1972-1973. These Syllabusʼs from the 1970ʼs show that the best known names from Scottish photographic circles were all regular visitors to Falkirk C.C.Associations with Stirling & District Camera Club and also Kirkintilloch Camera Club werelong established even then and continue to this day.

As members of The Scottish Photographic Federation www.scottish-photographic federation.org we are in contact with many similar clubs in Scotland and, through theS.P.F., we are afﬁliated to The Photographic Alliance of Great Britain www.pagb photography-uk.co.uk Our members have a shared interest and enthusiasm for photography which covers many subjects from Landscapes to Natural History to Sport andbeyond. Our geographical situation means that we are within reach of dramatic Highlandmountain scenery as well as the gentler rolling hills of the Borders. The Festival City of Edinburgh and the City of Glasgow, both offering numerous opportunities for photography are each only 30 minutes away while the coastlines of Fife and the Forth estuary present amyriad of picture taking opportunities.
If you have an interest in photography then please look in on a Thursday night for a sample of our club. If you are a visitor to our website from afar then please drop us anemail sharing your interest.