[Newhaven Fishermen]
Made by the painter David Octavius Hill and the chemist-photographer Robert Adamson in the first year of their brief but prolific partnership, this study of fishermen is one of some 130 images that show the inhabitants of a fishing village near Edinburgh, Scotland. The series, entitled The Fishermen and Women of the Firth of Forth, constitutes the first sustained use of photographs for a social documentary project. This photograph was printed from a paper negative using the chemical and optical process invented by William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), which allows an artist to produce any number of prints from a given negative.
Artwork Details
- Title: [Newhaven Fishermen]
- Photography Studio: Hill and Adamson (British, active 1843–1848)
- Artist: David Octavius Hill (British, Perth, Scotland 1802–1870 Edinburgh, Scotland)
- Artist: Robert Adamson (British, St. Andrews, Scotland 1821–1848 St. Andrews, Scotland)
- Date: 1843–47
- Medium: Salted paper print from paper negative
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: David Hunter McAlpin Fund, 1946
- Object Number: 46.1.159
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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