Tag: History

Categories
photography

Photograms of the Year 1945 – Takes to the Skies and Goes to the Dogs

1945 and the end of the war. Photograms of the Year has this to say:

“Photography in this country during 1944 tells a tale of difficulties, distress and tragedy, and of valiant and vigorous reaction.” It goes on to list some of the people who have died as a consequence of war including F.J. Mortimer, long time editor of Photograms of the Year.

The two photographs above reflect something about attitudes to war. Both “Warrior of the Stars” and “Spitfire Fighter” are undoubtedly wonderful photographs but do they reflect the true nature of war? Elsewhere there is a portrait of a naval officer but nothing else connected to the war. As before I’m surprised to find nothing of a documentary nature about the war. Considering Lee Miller was photographing much more graphic war images, for Vogue no less, the omission seems hard to understand.

When you note there are as many images of dogs in this edition of Photograms as there are of war it makes the omission of more military-related material seem even more odd.

Can you spot the “gentle satire of this graceful picture” entitled “Victorian Vogue?” I’m not sure that I can.

This time around the nudes include “Pleasant Reflection” and ” The Reading Girl.” Commentary notes that “Miss Mason would have made an even better picture if she had confined her subject to the reflected figure … the reflection has qualities of grace, charm and gaiety.” And clearly you should not be looking at the Reading Girl’s breasts but “the dark curtain repeating the dark tone at base of picture, the lines of shadow on the divan on which the model is sitting and the suggestion of shining sunlight through the window.” (Yes, I am having my cake and eating it too!)

I’ve been posting about the series of Photograms of the Year in the order in which I have acquired the volumes and there will be a good case to consider the chronological progress of photography if I ever complete the collection.

Categories
Dance

From Dancing Divinity to “Portly Grandmother”

I’ve recently acquired more Jessie Matthews items via an ebay seller in the USA. Above you can see publicity material for her film “It’s Love Again.” These glossy photos are printed two per side, each side measuring 19 inches by 12 inches so most likely they would have appeared in cinema foyers.

Colourful publicity for First a Girl, probably my favourite Jessie Matthews film. Basically the same plot as the German film Viktor and Viktoria from 1933 and Victor/Victoria from 1982 with Julie Andrews. I like the Julie Andrews version but consider Jessie Matthews version superior.

Three more publicity leaflets. I assume these were given out in cinemas on the films releases.

This pair of grainy ads have been cut from newspapers and from the material on the reverse they are plainly American publications.

Two cigarette cards, the first from a series of “Modern Beauties,” the second from “From Screen and Stage.”

The sale of sheet music was still popular in the 1930s when Jessie was at the height of her film career and above are 4 examples.

Finally we have this curiosity from 1973, long after Jessie’s fame as the Dancing Divinity. According to the article inside this American publication Jessie’s films were enjoying a revival at the time. However the article rather ungallantly describes the 65 year old as “a portly grandmother.”

This fan magazine also gives a useful list of Jessie’s films:

Categories
photography Social history war

Photograms of the Year 1946 and a Stalingrad Mystery

This stylish Art Deco inspired photograph has strong visual appeal.

War is over but is this reflected in Photograms of the Year for 1946? Given the introduction to this volume you would think so:

Despite this stirring introduction I can find very little photographically that reflects the war nor its cessation.

Intriguingly this photograph is difficult to interpret and there is no explanation although other entries have descriptions to help contextualise them. In 1941 there was still a non-aggression pact between Germany and Russia. The outbreak of hostilities between the two countries and the siege of Leningrad began in 1942. So was this photograph an ironic comment on the calm before the storm or just a portrait taken in Leningrad in 1941? Given that the photographer operated out of Bridlington after the war and was known for taking snaps of holidaymakers I suspect the latter to be true.

The Way of An Eagle is another stylish photograph portrayed in an impressionistic manner.

Artistry or cheesecake disguised as art?

Classical allusions are often invoked in nude studies as seen here. Note that it’s a female photographer once again.

To my eye there is little in 1946’s Photograms to distinguish it from previous years. Elsewhere we have the usual pictorialist landscapes, odd still-lifes and closeups of faces with little acknowledgement of the war, certainly in visual terms, and no hint of the documentary traditions of such importance taking place away from the rarefied world of art photography.

Categories
photography Social history

Photograms of the Year 1929 – the Interwar Years

What’s going on in the World in 1929? Interesting though Photograms of the Year is, you won’t find many answers therein. Each year a paragraph or two is devoted to photography in various countries. In Germany it was now the time of the Weimar Republic, a term coined by Hitler, characterised by hyperinflation, competing paramilitaries and general unrest. None of this is mentioned in the short essay on Germany which, instead, presents a word salad of little meaning such as “no longer the photography we have been calling artistic until a couple of years ago; not the photography based on the traditional principles of pictorial effect.”

“The Secret” shown above could be straight out of Teutonic mythology but is by a Manchester photographer. In some ways this reminds me of the paintings of Evelyn De Morgan as well as referencing back to the Pre-Raphaelites.

“Portrait”, at least gives a contemporary view of a flapper with its Art Deco overtones.

Wildlife photography is not well represented and I can’t help wondering whether this is a live stoat caught in action or a stuffed specimen posed for effect.

“The Terror of the Desert” is one of my favourites from this collection with it’s almost surreal depiction of desert and cloudscape.

In Pseud’s corner we are offered “A Thrush Sings” and “All Nature is But Art.” There are others but these two will suffice.

It’s quite kitsch but I find “Three Ducks” rather charming.

I’ll finish with this photograph of “Ulla Poulson,” a kind of portraiture that Photograms of the Year does so well.

Categories
Dance Music Hall photography Social history

Vintage Dancing Girls of Preston

A series of four photographs all from the studio of Arthur Winter of Preston. This one has a date of 1935 on the reverse and handwritten “The Maid of the Mountains.” It turns out that “The Maid of the Mountains” was a successful light operetta performed often in the first half of the twentieth century by various different companies and troupes. A search of the British Newspaper Archive reveals the following advertisement:

So, although I can’t be certain, it seems likely from the date that the photograph is of the chorus from the Preston and District Amateur Operatic Society.

Three further photographs from the same studio and date are probably of dancers from the same Society.

Not sure how I feel about “AI” generated videos from old photographs but the results are always interesting. The software seems to have invented some extra dancing girls for “The Maid of the Mountains.”

A second video generation seems altogether unlikely and too modern in style.

Categories
photography Social history war

Photograms of the Year 1941: but Don’t Mention the War

It’s the middle of the war and this photograph is the only one in “Photograms of the Year 1941” related to wartime. Everywhere else it’s business as usual. An introduction was added after the volume was assembled and includes the following: “The fact that it includes practically no photographs of warlike subjects is an indication of the place that real picture-making holds in the hearts of the people who practice it. Camera records of various phases of the war at home and abroad may be left to the Press photographers whose business it is, through the illustrated papers and the newsreels, to show the world realistic details of what is being done to the world under arms.”

I take this to mean that only the kind of photos included in the volume are to be considered “real picture-making” whereas war photography is not. This seems not only wrong to me but ignores the artistry of war photographers and the documentary tradition. A corrective for today might be to look up World War II photographers using wikipedia though I note the omission of Lee Miller from both World War II photographers and holocaust photographers. (Her individual entry gets it right though).

Landscape in pictorialist style is well represented as usual as are still lifes:

There are the usual nudes and figure studies. For instance this example of using a classical reference to present a nude:

Personally I find “Idol” to be a much more appealing image and I note that, once again, the female nude is just as likely to be taken by a female photographer as a male one at this time.

“Cherry Time” is another example of the use of classical reference and a pictorialist style.

You won’t be able read the above but it is an example of 21 pages listing camera clubs in the UK which perhaps gives an indication of how popular photography was as a hobby, even in the midst of war. I note that the camera club to which I belong today was listed as being operational in 1941.

Categories
Colors Dance Music Hall Social history Victorian

Who has not heard of John Tiller of Manchester?

I recently obtained a 2 page article from The Sketch magazine dated September 18 1895 interviewing John Tiller and giving lots of details about his training methods and troupes. I’m constantly amazed by how many dance troupes he trained and named. As time went on he basically franchised his brand to other trainers so we may never have a full list of the troupes trained in the Tiller method.

Quotes from the article are all shown in italics. The images are also from the article.

“Who has not heard of John Tiller of Manchester? But some of us may not have chatted with the energetic and genial manager whose name is so intimately connected with the troups of dancing and singing girls who in fours, sixes, eights, and sixteens, raise out spirits as high as they kick their heels in the maddening whirl of skirt which adds to the abandon of their style. “

“To go to Manchester without calling on Mr Tiller would be like going to Westbourne Grove without paying Whiteley’s a visit – they both have something to do in the way of skirt-providing, by the way.“

I didn’t get the reference to Whiteley’s but wikipedia tells me it was an early department store that grew out of a dressmaker’s business. Hence the reference to “skirt-providing.”

“As long as our girls are respectable and respectably conducted we don’t lay too great stress on drawing from any special class. We don’t send them out before eleven. You say that’s full early; but remember that we have them educated under proper governesses, for we hold that cultivation of intellect is necessary to learning dancing.”

It’s surprising how young some of the Tiller Girls were and there are many questions to be asked about their welfare and treatment. On the other hand becoming a Tiller Girl was one of the few ways that working class girls could escape from their backgrounds. Although I don’t think she was ever a Tiller Girl, Jessie Matthew’s career, as given in her autobiography, was very much one of a working class girl finding escape through dance.

“Of course, you supply individual dancers?”

“Rather,” he replied with a confident smile. “Miss Ethel Neild, now at the London Lyric,  comes from our school; Miss Any Knott will be principal boy at Huddersfield next winter; and Miss Bessie Cohen and Miss Maggie Rimmer are well-known soubrettes and dancers of pas-seula all over the provinces; while, if you have space, you might mention “Little Blake,” “Little Annie” and “Little Burnett,” who have been particularly successful in their “single turns.”

“I notice that you name your troupes differently. There are “The Fairy Four,” “Tiller’s Troubadours,” “The Forget-Me-Nots,” “Tiller’s Mascottes, “ “The Rainbow Troupe,” &c. What distinction is there between them?”

“Very little, except that each troupe has its own speciality. “The Tiller Troupe” is composed of our tallest girls, and “The Forget-Me-Nots” are the smallest; but they all dance and sing. They can do “cart-wheels,” the “splits,” and the high kick – indeed, everything that is done in fantastic dancing.”

The Sketch article is a great resource and all the more valuable for being contemporaneous with Tiller’s early work. By listing some of his dancers and the venues they appeared at, the article also adds to our knowledge of the music hall venues of the day. Who knows what else is yet to be discovered?

Categories
photography

Kate Smith Pictorialist

I recently became aware of a photographer called Kate Smith who was once a well-known pictorialist. Here’s a typical photo “By a Cool Stream.”

According to the Ebayer I obtained this print of “Nymph” from:

“Prominent Pictorialist Kate Smith was born near Watford the daughter of Joseph Gutteridge Smith (1823-1914) a paper manufacturer and Mary Elizabeth Hepburn (1834-1885). She exhibited at the Royal Photographic Society from 1903 until 1934 becoming a fellow of the RPS in 1927. Kate Smith had solo exhibitions at 35 Russell Square in 1925 and 1926 and was described by Cecil Beaton as perhaps “the precursor of Baron Demeyer”. She specialised in photographs of single female figures, nude or in diaphanous costume within romantic landscapes, many of her pictures being modelled by friends in her garden or nearby countryside. They were frequently published in society periodicals such as the Sketch and the Bystander between 1907 and 1914. In 1925 had the unusual honour of addressing the RPS in a lecture describing her approach to photography and working method.”

It is notoriously difficult to obtain information about early pictorialist photographers with the exception of a few famous names such as Clarence H White and Alfred Stieglitz. Web searches often yield little or nothing.

In this instance ChatGPT was able to find more information than other sources and the results were in agreement with the quote above and were referenced so we can probably trust them to be correct:

“Here’s what is known about the British pictorialist photographer Catherine Mary “Kate” Smith:

📸 Background & Life

🎨 Photographic Style & Subjects

🏅 Exhibitions & Recognition

  • First exhibited at the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) Salon in 1903; she exhibited almost annually up to WWI and again post-war sistersofthelens.com.
  • Joined RPS in 1908, became Associate (ARPS) from 1920, showcased her own one‑woman exhibition in 1925, and in that year earned Fellowship (FRPS) sistersofthelens.com.

📷 Equipment & Workflow

  • Often photographed around her home with a 3¼×4¼ Adams Vesta camera fitted with a Zeiss lens flickr.com+1flickr.com+1.

🌾 Notable Work

  • For example, Earth’s Bounty (1912) is a classic demonstration of her style—depicting a softly-lit, mythic figure in a wheat field—exhibited at the 1912 Salon flickr.com+1flickr.com+1.

📚 Summary
Catherine Mary “Kate” Smith was a key figure in British Pictorialism, intertwining romantic narratives, soft-focus aesthetics, and myth-inspired themes in her photography. Her steady presence in RPS exhibitions, eventual Fellowship, and evocative images set in nature mark her as a distinguished contributor to early 20th-century fine art photography.”

The website Sisters of the Lens is a useful resource for finding information about other late nineteenth and early twentieth century female photographers.

Categories
photography

Vintage Photography Techniques: Wet Plate Collodion Process

After my previous post I decided it would be an interesting project to try and create photographs based on the various techniques that were used between the 1860s and 1950s. This project will be mainly undertaken using digital means rather than mechanical means mainly due to the excessive amounts of equipment, chemicals etc required. That’s not to say I won’t use original materials were possible. For instance I already have the chemicals necessary to produce Cyanotypes and have done so in the past.

So I’ve started with the wet plate collodion types, originally requiring large format cameras and very fast development times once exposures have taken place. I should also say that the wet plate collodion technique was used to produce a number of different outputs using glass plate negatives including ambrotypes and tintypes

I began with this self-portrait:

I used photoshop and the steps described by James Abbott in his youtube video. It was clear that many subtle variations could be achieved using his approach but I eventually arrived at this result:

I also tried an action produced by Gavin Seim from his signature emulsion collection with this result:

Of course it’s a matter of taste as to which approach works best but my personal preference is the middle one, following James Abbott’s steps, as it yields a warmer effect from the slight toning.

I’ll discuss the dry plate collodion method in a future post but needless to day it involves dry plates instead of wet plates! It also necessitates much longer exposures.

Categories
photography

Photography 1860 – 1950

A useful summary of the main types of photographic printing techniques as described by ChatGPT.

1860s–1880s: The Wet and Dry Plate Era

  1. Collodion Wet Plate (1851–1880s)
    • Required immediate development after exposure.
    • Used for ambrotypes, tintypes, and glass negatives.
    • Dominated professional photography before dry plates.
  2. Albumen Print (1850s–1890s)
    • Most common paper-based print of the 19th century.
    • Printed from wet-plate glass negatives.
    • Characterized by a glossy surface and fine detail.
  3. Tintype (Ferrotype) (1850s–1930s, peak in 1860s–1870s)
    • Direct positive on a thin metal plate (iron, not tin).
    • Popular for quick, inexpensive portraits.
  4. Collodion Dry Plate (1860s–1880s)
    • A brief transitional process between wet plates and gelatin dry plates.
    • Allowed limited storage before exposure.

1880s–1920s: The Rise of Film and Commercial Photography

  1. Gelatin Dry Plate (1871–1920s)
    • Replaced wet plates—could be stored and developed later.
    • Enabled faster exposure times and handheld cameras.
    • Used for early night photography and motion studies.
  2. Platinum Print (Platinotype) (1873–1920s, revival in later years)
    • High tonal range and matte finish.
    • Favored by fine art photographers.
  3. Gum Bichromate (1890s–1920s, revived later)
    • Allowed for painterly, artistic effects.
    • Popular with Pictorialists.
  4. Cyanotype (1842–1920s, mainly for blueprints and artistic use)
    • Characterized by deep blue tones.
    • Used for technical drawings and artistic prints.
  5. Autochrome (1903–1930s, first practical color process)
    • Invented by the Lumière brothers.
    • Used dyed potato starch grains to create soft, painterly colors.

1920s–1950s: The Evolution of Film and Color Photography

  1. Bromoil Print (1907–1950s, artistic use)
    • Allowed selective manipulation of image tones.
    • Used by Pictorialists for soft-focus effects.
  2. Kodachrome (1935–2009, peak in the 1940s–1950s)
    • First widely available color reversal (slide) film.
    • Popular for professional and consumer photography.
  3. Agfacolor (1936–1950s, rival to Kodachrome)
    • Early color film alternative to Kodak’s process.
    • Used extensively in European photography and cinema.
  4. Dye Transfer (1940s–1950s, high-end color process)
    • Extremely high-quality color prints.
    • Used for advertising and fine art photography.
  5. Polaroid Instant Film (1948–present, introduced by Edwin Land)
    • Allowed instant image development.
    • Popular for snapshots and professional use.