DAVID OCTAVIUS HILL AND ROBERT ADAMSON: CATALOGUE OF THEIR CALOTYPES TAKEN BETWEEN 1843 AND 1847 IN THE COLLECTION OF THE SCOTTISH NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY.
Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 1981. Hill, David Octavius. First edition. 4to., 220 pp., numerous illustrations in text, plus a profuse catalog of hundreds of small format reproductions of their calotypes. Pictorial stiff wrappers. One tiny scrape to the front wrapper fore edge; a near fine copy. Item #52507
David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson were pioneers in photography. Adamson, himself an engineer, had early contacts with William Henry Fox Talbot through his brother. Adamson opened a studio in Edinburgh in 1843. That year, Hill, a well-known society portrait painter, contacted Adamson to collaborate on the recording of a major split in the Church of Scotland. A partnership resulted that yielded a vast assortment of 3000 calotype negatives and many prints. Their partnership ended in 1848 with the death of Adamson. The photographs were truly the result of collaboration: the mix of Adamson's technical prowess with Hill's aesthetic sense.
Price: $125.00