David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, Principal Haldane 1890

David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson

Principal Haldane, 1890

Camera Work XXXVII

Photogravure by James Craig Annan, 21.5 x 15.8 cm

It is impossible to estimate what impact James Craig Annan would have on the future of photography when he began experimenting with using photogravure to print Hill and Adamson’s calotypes in the 1890s. Annan believed that photogravure could be for the first time, an accurate interpretation of Hill and Adamson's forgotten about material. The surface quality alone was enough. Like photogravure, calotypes and salt prints have a soft mat surface. 

A highly skilled technician, Annan was fastidious, in part because he was a perfectionist and also because he may have felt a personal responsibility to Hill. Hill was a family friend and is known to have influenced Annan’s pursuit of art. Annan eventually produced a a group of twenty Hill and Adamson images assembled into a portfolio that was never editioned. Over the years Annan lent Hill and Adamson photogravure prints to exhibitions in Europe and America. And by sending the prints to Stieglitz for Camera Work in 1905, 1909 and 1912 Annan ultimately brought Hill and Adamson back into the public eye. [1]

Reproduced

Greenough, Sarah, and William C. Agee. Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries ; [catalog of an Exhibition Held at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.c., 28 January - 22 April 2001]. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 2000. fig. 9.

Schwarz, Heinrich. David Octavius Hill, Master of Photography: With 80 Reproductions Made from Original Photos and Printed in Germany. London: G.G. Harrap, 1932. pl. 36

[1] Hans P. Kraus Jr (Firm) Schaaf LJ. Sun Pictures. Catalog Eleven St. Andrews and Early Scottish Photography Including Hill & Adamson. New York: H.P. Kraus Jr. Fine Photographs; 2002.