Royal Photographic Society
Membership of the Council:
He was a member of the Council (the national committee, in effect) for many years:
1905 – 1934 except 25, 29, 33 (from AGMs in the minute book)
1934 – 1938 except 1937 (from copies of the Journal)
But I don’t have a definite last date. So far, we know that he was a member from 1905 to 1938 (34 years) with only four single years missing, when he was not elected. It could be longer, though by 1938 he was 72 years old. When he joined he was 39.
He was on the Journal Business Committee from 1921 onwards, and the Fellowship Admissions Committee (Scientific) from 1923.
Looking at the Council minutes, it seems he seldom spoke at Council meetings – or at least he seldom said anything that got into the minutes. He was clearly not one of the activists. He did from time to time make remarks at the technical meetings.
Exhibition topics
He showed at numerous London exhibitions in the most photographically active period of his life. His interests clearly changed over that period.
The themes were: (using these codes)
Art = pictorialism
Architecture = mainly closeups by telephoto of sculpture and carving
Micro = Photomicrography, especially of jam and plants
Source – RPS Exhibition catalogues 1894 – 1924 (his age 28 – 58), held for many years at the NMPFT in Bradford, now kept at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
1895: 461: 12 architectural Slides (For which a Medal was awarded)
1897: 221: Art platinum print (An Old Belfry) plus 442: 12 architectural slides of Vezelay, Alpirsbach, Freiburg
1898: 2 Art prints 159: Oh! Hey for Somebody (carbon), and 263: St Sebastian’s Chapel, Neuwiler (platinum)
1899: Art print 360: Water Lilies (carbon)
1902: Three ozotypes – 78: La Foret du Trait, 104: Barges on the Lea, 106: The Lacemaker
1903: 548: Telephotograph of a capital, Canterbury Cathedral, 552: North Door Rheims, one art print in the invitation section 139: The Parasol
1905: 206: Water Buttercups
1908: 2 art Autochromes (the first year of significant numbers of Autochromes in the show) 662: The Bluebell Wood, 663: The Statuette
“This year [the Autochrome] begins to take its place as a tool for the picture-maker. Those critics who said that its results must always be hard, factual transcripts of nature have been proved wrong, for already there are half a dozen auto-chromists whose different outlooks are obvious in their work. Coburn cannot be confounded with Steichen or De Meyer, Warburg with Ernest Marriage, or any of them with H. Walter Barnett, …” – The Photogram, 1908
1909: 181: At the Bullfight (oil process)
1910: 66: A Low Large Moon (bromide)
1911: 646: Four micrographs of jam adulteration
1913: A set of micro pictures of jam adulteration (again a Medal)
1916: Unfamiliar jam adulterants (1)
1917: 3 Micros showing the proportion of starch in certain roots
And then it stops until 1937, when he exhibited (No. 518) a slide in the technical section of the crystallisation of sodium hyposulphite, and in the colour section No. 542, a Dufaycolour slide of a Black Orpington Cock which was favourably reviewed in the next issue of the Journal.
It’s clear he was interested in experimenting with processes, he seems to have tried and exhibited many. His interests also moved away from architecture and towards photomicrography as time passed, applying the microscope particularly to his profession of jam-making. Although the RPS Collection holds only two of his prints, there are many lantern slides and some glass negatives.
Articles etc. in the Photographic Journal
Period checked: 1894 – 1939
1900: pp. 184-5 Romanesque Architecture
1909: pp. 142 – The Autochrome in many hands (contribution)
pp. 252 – The Bible of the Middle Ages [= architecture]
pp. 429 – a review of the Chartres book
1911: Letter on Halation p. 302
1913: First Steps in Telephotography p. 55
1913: Photomicrography and Jam Adulteration, pp. 257 – 261
1915: Carvings of Amiens Cathedral p. 208
1916: First steps in photography with the microscope pp. 82-90
1925: Some Applications of the Telephoto Lens pp. 402-406
1926: Decoration of Early Italian Churches pp. 537-39