A Perfect Chemistry: Photographs by Hill and Adamson - Brossura

Anne M. Lyden

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1911054104 ISBN 13: 9781911054108

Casa editrice: National Galleries of Scotland, 2018

Riassunto

Pioneering Edinburgh photographers David Octavius Hill (1802-1870) and Robert Adamson (1821-1848) together formed one of the most famous partnerships in the history of photography. Producing highly skilled photographs just four years after the new medium was announced to the world in 1839, their images of people, buildings and scenes in and around Edinburgh offer a fascinating glimpse into 1840s Scotland. Their much-loved prints of the Newhaven fisherfolk are among the first images of social documentary photography. In the space of four and a half years Hill and Adamson produced several thousand prints encompassing landscapes, architectural views, tableaux vivants from Scottish literature and an impressive suite of portraits featuring key members of Edinburgh society. Anne M. Lyden, International Photography Curator at the National Galleries of Scotland, discusses the dynamic dispute that brought these two men together and reveals their perfect chemistry as the first professional partnership in Scottish photography.

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Recensione

'The chemistry celebrated here is the photographic process- calotypes achieved by complex, cumbersome, unpredictable methods of applying light-sensitive chemical solutions to paper- pioneered in Victorian Edinburgh, and also the partnership, from 1844-48, between two innovators: the engineer Robert Adamson and the painter David Octavius Hill.' --Financial Times

'The meeting of the two men resulted in the 'perfect chemistry' to which the title of this exhibition refers. Despite being 19 years apart in age and from wildly different backgrounds, they forged a partnership which would change the face of photography. For the next four-and-a-half years, until their collaboration was cut short by Adamson s death, they would work and live together, taking a fledgling invention and turning it into an art form.It's like being afforded a glimpse, at last, into Hill and Adamson s world, that place of endless ingenuity and ideas and hard work and it seems a robust sense of humour. It is, however, a brief glimpse: most of those moments remain outside the frame.' --The Scotsman

'Only four years after the invention of photography was announced to the world in 1839, two Scots had mastered the new medium and were producing works of breathtaking skill in extraordinary quantities.

A Perfect Chemistry explores the uniquely productive and influential partnership of David Octavius Hill (1802-1870) and Robert Adamson (1821-1848), which lasted a few short years from 1843 until early 1848. These stunning images, which belie the almost unimaginable technical challenges faced by the duo, are arguably among the first examples of social documentary in the history of photography.' --Fest

L'autore

Anne M. Lyden is International Photography Curator at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. She was previously Associate Curator of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles where she curated many major exhibitions. She has previously written a number of publications, including The Photographs of Frederick H. Evans (2010) and A Royal Passion: Queen Victoria and Photography (2014, both Getty Publications).

Su questa edizione

• Editore: National Galleries of Scotland
• Data di pubblicazione: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1911054104
• ISBN 13: 9781911054108
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 120