Hill & Adamson

Conchita Fernandes recounts the story of the Scottish pioneering duo, David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson.

- Conchita Fernandes

The year 1826 marks a pivotal time in the history of photography. The French scientist Joseph Nicéphore Niépce made the first ever photograph in this year, paving the way for scientific innovation in the medium. However, it was only in 1839, with the invention of the daguerreotype process by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, that photography truly came into being. As arduous a process as it was to create an image, the daguerreotype was praised for its ability to capture a truthful likeness of the photographed subject.

Immediately after, in 1841, William Henry Fox Talbot introduced the calotype process. Although it produced a less sharp image that the daguerreotype process, but since it involved a photographic negative, it was possible to produce multiple copies of a single image. One of the striking features of the process was that the produced image was embedded within the fabric of the paper instead of its surface. This gave the photograph a soft, painterly touch. It was these qualities that made the calotype endearing to David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, two Scottish photographers who went by the moniker Hill and Adamson. They used the process to create portraits and photographs of architecture and landscapes, and what could perhaps be the first ever venture into social documentary photography.

The Beginning of Their Partnership