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Early Photographers
William Carrick
1827-1878
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Family
William Carrick was born
in Edinburgh on 31 December 1878. He moved with his family, the
following year, .to St Petersburg where the family had a timber
business.
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Travel
William Carrick studied
architecture at St Petersburg Academy of Arts for nine years from 1844,
then took up watercolour.
He then travelled to Rome, as
a painter, then returned to St Petersburg in 1856.
In 1857, he came back to
Edinburgh and learnt photography from
James Good Tunny, then set up a studio in 1859 with John MacGregor,
who was also taught by Tunny.
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Photographs
'Russian Types'
William Carrick produced a series
of cartes de visite of 'Russian Types', featuring different types and
trades of Russians. When business was quiet, he brought chimney
sweeps, knife grinders, the postman and many others into his studio to be
photographed.
He produced cartes de visite of
these 'Russian Types' and sold them the tourists visiting Russia.
The Scottish National Portrait Gallery has a number of these attractive
cartes de visite, together with a number of other Carrick photos including
a self-portrait.
Carrick's interest in
photographing the Russian people continued. In the 1870s, he
travelled twice to the interior of Russia, photographing the landscape and
its people.
His photography continued until
1878. In that year, he died of pneumonia. |
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Photography in St Petersburg
Charles Piazzi
Smyth, Astronomer Royal for Scotland, visited St Petersburg in 1859,
the year that Carrick opened his studio and commented:
"There is scarcely a more frequent sign to be met with along all the
principal streets than 'PHOTOGRAPHER'; and all
the specimens exhibited outside the studios, chiefly large-size portraits,
were among the finest things we have ever seen in that line."
[Three Cities in Russia, 1862, P.308 (Charles Piazzi
Smyth). Thank you to Julie Lawson for this quote.] |
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Details above are taken mainly from the following:
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Scottish Masters Series, No 3: William Carrick 1827-1878 (Felicity Ashbee
& Julie Lawson) ISBN 0 903148 76 5
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A Companion Guide to Photography in the National Galleries of Scotland
(Sara Stevenson & Duncan Forbes)
pp.74-75). ISBN 1 903278 23 6.
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