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Early Photographers
John Muir Wood
1805-1892
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Family
John Muir
Wood was born in Edinburgh to a family that manufactured square pianos, organs, harps and drums,
and published sheet music.
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Travel
John Muir
Wood travelled
in Europe from 1826, studying music. In the 1840s and 1850s he
produced a large number of calotypes. About 900 of these have been donated
to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. Several of
these appear in the book: The Photography of John Muir
Wood, An Accomplished Amateur 1805-1892.
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International Photography
John Muir Wood took portraits
and landscapes in the 1847 or earlier. in Scotland, England, Ireland, France,
Belgium and Germany.
In one of his calotypes of St
Giles' Church in Edinburgh, a van belonging to 'Eliza Cook, Dispatch
Portrait Company' can be seen. It would be interesting to
learn more about this company as it might give an indication of when the
photograph was taken.
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Colours of Prints
John Muir Wood experimented in using
different metals, including copper, tin and other metals, to produce a range
of tones in his photos. There is a note on the back of one of his
purplish prints referring to uranium, but the print has been analysed in
Edinburgh and no trace of the metal has been found.
In the 1850s and 1860s, he
used the carbon process.
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Contacts
John Muir Wood knew
and photographed the
Cundell family of photographers in Leith.
He went on a tour of the west of Scotland in 1841 with the history
and landscape painter, James Eckford Lauder (1811-1869). |
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Experiments
John Muir Wood made many experiments in producing
different colours and more permanence in his calotype work. His
experiments included salts of uranium, carbon and gold toning. |
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Images
The Scottish National Photographic Gallery
collection includes many salt paper prints from John Muir
Wood's calotype negatives.
Sixty eight images from the SNPG John Muir Wood
collection are reproduced in the book,
The Photography of John Muir Wood, An
Accomplished Amateur 1805-1892.
These include:
- portraits and groups
- old street scenes in Europe
- views of Edinburgh (Canongate Tolbooth and St Bernard's Well
- abbeys and monuments in Scotland
- woodland studies |
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Acknowledgement:
The Photography of John Muir Wood, An Accomplished Amateur 1805-1892
[Sara Stevenson, Julie Lawson, Michael Gray]: Publ.
SNPG: ISBN 1 85378 007 3
ALSO: Light from the Dark Room [National Galleries of Scotland,
1995] |
