Thursday, October 24, 2013

Dating historical photos

What age do you think this photo is?
 
 
I actually have a pretty good idea of the age of this photo, as it is a photo of my Great grandmother and Grandfather and my Grandfather wrote an important clue on the back, which I will tell you about later.  But what if my Grandfather had not given me a clue, how could I discover the date this photo was taken?   

Dating old photos requires some detective work, you have to look for clues.  Factors such as the type of photographic process used; who the photographer was, when they operated, and the size of the photo are all important clues.  For paper printed photos,  the type of mount and the information printed on the back of the mount also give clues about the age of the photo.  The clothing people are wearing the studio setting, the props and background provide additional information.
  
Photographic Process : The photo is mounted on card, it has a slight purple tinge to it and it is smooth and glossy.  The photo is a paper based print and not a negative. This eliminates some earlier photographic processes such as daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and tintypes. When the photograph is enlarged you cannot see the underlying paper texture. This means the photo has at least three layers, which narrows the range of print types to either a Gelatin or a Collodian printed out print.  If it is a Collodian printed out print it will have three layers making up the print and the paper fibres will not be visible when you look up close at the highlights and mid-tones (apart from the damage).  Looking at the photo closely, and combined with the other factors it appears the photo is a Collodian printed out print, a photographic process used  between 1865 to 1920.  That is quite a wide range, so we need to look at some  of the other clues.

Photo mount: The photo measures 4 ¼ by 6 ½ inches (10.7 by 16.5cm), and apart from my Grandfather's handwriting on the back it is completely blank.   This size of photo is known as a Cabinet Card, not a smaller carte de visite. Roger Vaughan, an English collector of early photographs, has identified some useful stylistic mount characteristics of these cards which can be used for dating.   Cabinet cards were often blank on the back in the 1900 period, with no printed matter.  This cabinet card has rounded corners, again this indicates it was produced around 1900, because after 1900 Cabinet cards were square with embossed borders. 

The photographer:  At the bottom of the photo it says Frank J Denton and in brackets (Late A Martin), Wanganui, New Zealand. This suggests to me that Denton may have bought Martin's business. Denton is listed on the Auckland City Photographers Database, a wonderful resource which can be accessed online via the Auckland Public Library site. Denton is listed as operating in Wanganui around this time (at the time of my original search, a little later) and Alfred Martin is listed as being in Wanganui until the late 1890s.  I did a search on Papers Past, in the Wanganui Chronicle 1899 and found a very interesting Public Notice:
 
So I believe Denton had only recently taken over this business when my great grandmother and grandfather had their photo taken.

Clothing Styles: My Grandfather was born in September 1896 and his mother in 1871. She was an assistant teacher. He looks about 3 to 4 years old. My Great grandmother is wearing a masculine styled coat dress with a high collar and the top of her sleeves are quite small and not the large puffy style that was popular in the 1890s, indicating that its a later style.  Consulting a reference on dress styles, in the early part of the 1900s progressive women who were working adopted a more masculine style of dress. Her coat dress was popular in the early 1900s.  My Grandfather is dressed in an Edwardian style. 

It is pretty clear from my analysis that the photo was taken either late 1899 or early 1900 which is confirmed by the clue my Grandfather wrote on the back of the photo:


 "Mother and me at Norsewood about 1900"

Now I just have to work out what they were doing in Norsewood at that time, but that is another mystery to be solved.....

Some useful references:
 
For photographic processes  http://www.graphicsatlas.org/

For NZ photographers since 1840 - the photographic database link is:
Some links on clothing styles and fashions
http://www.fashion-era.com/Dating_Costume_History_Pictures/how_to_date_photographs_top.htm

Copyright Carterworks NZ

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Why people don't smile in old photos

Recently the photoblog PetaPixel ran a little article on the reasons why people didn't smile in early photos.  It appears apart for the need to sit still while the photo was taken there may have been other reasons as well.  See below:

http://petapixel.com/2013/09/23/didnt-people-smile-old-photos/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PetaPixel+%28PetaPixel%29

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Kelburn Normal School Centenary dramatic colour photo transformation

I am busy scanning Kelburn Normal School class photos for the Centenary celebrations to be held in May 2014.  In the 1970s school photographers started offering school photos in black and white and colour. I can see why they did both...they were not sure about the stability of colour photographic processes.....this one is from 1977...


It looked a little red...I was delighted to discover that it responds well to a bit of photoshop magic!

 
 
For information about the reunion go to  http://www.kelburnnormalschool100.com/index.html or the facebook page  at https://www.facebook.com/KelburnNormalSchoolCentenary

Monday, August 26, 2013

An example of an old retouched photo from the Image Permanence Institute

I have discovered a wonderful on line resource  that you can use to help you identify and conserve your photos.  It is called the Graphics Atlas which has been put together by the Image Permanence Institute a New York based research centre.

This online resource includes examples of all different types of early photos, slides and negatives.  Information about the construction of different types of photographs, negative and slides, the sort of damage they typically suffer from, cross sections and close up views of the image are provided. 

Below is an example of an early retouched photograph from the Atlas, proving that retouching and restoration is not a new, and in fact was used in early photographs.

 
 
Copyright Carterworks NZ

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Reproducing a water colour

A while ago I was asked by a couple to reproduce two beautiful original watercolour paintings. The paintings were painted of their daughters by an elderly Aunt.  One of the daughters, who now lives overseas, had asked for a copy of the paintings that she remembered as a young girl.

As an artist, I think it is important to reproduce colours accurately, something that was quite hard to do years ago when colour print technology was limited. 

Fortunately the watercolour originals were in beautiful condition.  I chose an archival matt paper ideal for art reproductions that resembled the original watercolour paper in its colouring and subtle texture. As I have a fully calibrated scanner, computer screen and printer I was able to accurately match the printed colours to the original watercolour.  The prints were reproduced using my  beautiful high resolution Epson Stylus Pro 3800 printer, which has archival inks. The family were really pleased with the end result.  As a bonus the family now have digitised archival copies of the original artworks which they can share.




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Monday, August 12, 2013

Graduation Portrait

I was really honoured when my friend Maureen asked that I take portrait photos of her and her family following her graduation ceremony.  We did a series of group shots with her family and then individual shots, down at a local park.  This one below is one of my favourite's.... taken about halfway through the shoot, when the family had left, the lighting and the location were just magic, and we just relaxed....


and I didn't even need photoshop!   Well just a little.....



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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Fascinating detective work by the Independent

The Independent has had a series of articles showing images taken from glass plate negatives that have recently been uncovered in the Somme area.  It is suspected they were taken by a local amature photographer who would have sold the prints from these negatives to subjects to send home to their loved ones.  One set of negatives is particularly interesting as it shows a woman dressed in an NZ uniform, see the story in the following link....
 
 
And another about a different image from this time
 



Restored image

Original image
Postcard images from this era were very popular and like many I have private images that were sent home (England) during this period. This one is of my great grandfather taken in Ypres (Leper) 1917.    It was probably taken by a local photographer and incorporated into a postcard image. 












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