Archives

19th Century Photo-portraits: ‘Invisible’ mothers and visible babies

Dec 23

A rather curious form of portrait photographs emerged from about the mid to late 19th century – a ‘form innovation’ necessitated by a frailty of early photographic technologies viz. low emulsion sensitivity, and, consequently lengthy exposure times. The subject had to stay still for a fairly long stretch. Photographing adults was less of challenge then, but when it came to restless, excitable babies and children, the mothers were often cloaked or ‘disguised’ as supports for them, to get them to be calm and still. Mothers often covered themselves in black (or other) cloth to hold their children upright for the benefit of the camera. Sometimes the babies were propped upright from behind with the parent’s hands. Extra long child garments were also used to help hide the mother’s legs and body. The resultant images are a telling commentary on 19th century norms and photographic practice, however strange you may find them in the 21st. Take a look.

Persuaded not to perspire! Early deodorant advertisements.

Sep 16

How did urbanites, like us, get so daily dependent on the ubiquitous spray can of deo? For a long time deodorants and antiperspirants were niche products and were often perceived as unnecessary and unhealthy. The late 19th C and the early 20th C saw advertising come to the rescue of a disastrously failing product, and the rest is sprayed history. 1888, was when the first deodorant (kills odor-producing bacteria) called Mum was trademarked and the first antiperspirant (preventing sweat-production and bacterial growth) was called Everdry and launched in 1903. Later in 1912 an enterprising young lady started a company selling an antiperspirant – Odorono (Odor? Oh No!). Yes, as blunt as that. Modern sensibilities might find some of these advertisements insensitive, sexist and incorrect. But don’t fall into that ‘armhole’.

Rare photograph manipulations before Photoshop: 1855-1950.

Aug 20

Two-Headed Man: Unknown, American ca. 1855 Daguerreotype

It is quite curious for us to look back at an age of visual practice which did not have the tools that we take as an assured presence now. From anonymous daguerreotypers (about 1855) to Oscar Rejlander (very often credited with one of the earliest articulations of manipulated photographs – 1857), the century that was to follow saw the imaginations and skills of myriad ‘trick photographers’ come to the fore. The George Eastman House and the Metropolitan Museum of Art have in their collection some of the early ‘imagineering’ that occurred much before the Knoll brothers changed the image making world in the latter half of the twentieth century. Take a look.

Rare mugshots of petty thieves from Newcastle, UK. 1872-1873

Aug 05

Alice Mullholland, 18, was a street trader who was sentenced to three months in Newcastle Goal for stealing boots.

The list of thefts committed was ominous enough, ranging from stealing of rabbits, beef, pigeons to clothes, tobacco and bed linen. In a fascinating record of early police portraiture, these men and women look into the new technology enabled apparatus sans hope, regret or amusement. Still proud, one can clearly see how they might have been asked by the cameraman to meet the ‘posing protocol’ of Victorian representation, hands/fingers locked. Not all of them care for protocol though. Take a sepia tinted look, courtesy the Tyne & Wear Archives.

Days of the Raj – Calcutta (Kolkata), India, 1912

Jun 15

These plate-glass negatives were found inside a shoebox by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) in Edinburgh, UK.