James Craig Annan, Ploughing Team 1907

James Craig Annan

Ploughing Team, 1907

Camera Work XIX

Photogravure, 9.2 x 23.7 cm

The plate for this print was prepared for Stieglitz by James Craig Annan. The print was made by Annan's firm, T. & R. Annan & Sons in Scotland.

Annan’s personal exploration of the Realist movement centered on an interest in working life seen honestly.  The photograph of ploughing was so effectively natural that Annan was forced to explain that it was indeed calculated.  The teams of oxen happened to occupy the fortunate positions they do in the picture, but it was only after watching them plough furrow after furrow that I chanced to make the exposure.[1] 

"Lombardy Ploughing Team" typifies the strong British interest in idyllic landscapes, complete with farmer, trees, and animals.  "Lombardy Ploughing Team" presents an idealized vision of rural life that previously had been painted by Barbizon artists and was currently promoted by members of the English arts and crafts movement.  Annan avoided the mundane in this image, however, by utilizing an unorthodox crop, probably influenced by Japanese art.

His Lombardy Ploughing Team is unrivaled in force and color. The group of oxen seen from behind is superb, as is their driver, viewed from beneath the shade of the trees, where, between the foliage, the sun throws bursts of light. In the background other groups of cattle are harnessed and ploughing the land. A majestic chain of mountains rises up hazily on the horizon. It is a grandiose scene, and, by the way it has been presented on the page, a real picture.[2]

Reproduced

Newhall, Beaumont. Photography, Essays & Images: Illustrated Readings in the History of Photography. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1980. p. 191 (carbon)

De Andere Fotografie de Geschiedenis van de Fotomechanische Reproductie in de Negentiende Eeuw: tentoonstelling in het Zeeuws Museum Middelburg 1989 (The Other Photography the History of Photomechanical Reproduction in the Nineteenth Century: Exhibition in the Zeeuws Museum Middelburg 1989) Exhibited chk 101

An Exhibition on Photographic Reproduction Processes from The Collection of Samuel J. Wagstaff, Jr. at the Grolier Club. 1983

Edmond Sacre. 'Exposition des Oeuvres de Craig Annan de Glasgow'. Bulletin de Association Beige de Photographic vol. 24, no. 6 (June 1897), p. 405-17.

Peterson, Christian A. Alfred Stieglitz's Camera Notes. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1993. 

Reference

[1] (see “Mr. Craig Annan’s Address at the opening of Exhibition of his Works at the Royal Photographic Society” The Amateur Photographer: An Illustrated Popular Journal. London: Hazell, Watson and Viney, 1884. Print. 2 Feb 1900 p. 83)Peterson, Christian A. Alfred Stieglitz's Camera Notes. Minneapolis: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1993.

[2] Edmond Sacre. 'Exposition des Oeuvres de Craig Annan de Glasgow'. Bulletin de Association Beige de Photographic vol. 24, no. 6 (June 1897), p. 405-17. Translation from French