Adam Diston

Composition Picture

'Old Woman Fish Seller and Boy in a Bar'

Here is one of two composition pictures by Adam Diston in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia. This is the title that was given to the picture, but please also see Eric Eunson's comments 2 below see Please click here to see the other composition picture.

The Broken Toe

The National Museum of Australia comments that these composition pictures were produced by Diston around the 1880s from several negatives of models dressed as workers and rustic types, and that this pair of photos may have formed a series illustrating a moral tale about the career of the young boy.

An article in John Nicol's 'Notes from the North' column in the British Journal of Photography [20 October 20, 1876, pp.499-500] gives fairly lengthy explanation of how Diston produced his composition photographs.

Question

Do you have any further information about this or other composition photos by Diston? If so, please email me. e.g. Was the picture above perhaps one of Diston's award-winning photos?

Picture Label

The following information is given on the label on the photograph above:

Old Woman Fish Seller and Boy in a Bar - 1880s

Albumen silver photograph on paper and on glass

Collection National Gallery of Australia Ray Rathbourne Films Fund

nga.no.1987.2101

Composition Pictures

Comments

Eric Eunson wrote

Composition Pictures

"I have been a collector of Leven images for over thirty years. I have about 20 Adam Diston cartes de visite portraits and ten cabinets, including one of Talbot Cottage. However, I knew nothing of the composite pictures.

The pair in the Australian gallery are exquisite, and I'm certain certain these are also taken in Leven. The fishwife is certainly typical of the area.

The compositions remind me of Dutch masters' peasant interiors. This and the expensive framing suggest they are a photographic attempt to emulate classical art as furnishing pieces.

Illustrations of morality tales tended to be cheap and cheerful productions by contrast. Obviously, Adam Diston is also developing the skill of photographing interiors, outside the studio.

Although they are posed some degree, they are marvellous social history documents, and study of directories and census might suggest the identity of the cobbler."

Eric Eunson, Leven, Fife, Scotland: September 11, 2009

Composition Pictures

Comments

Eric Eunson added:

Old Woman Fish Seller and Boy

'Waiting for Change'

"A routine browse of Adam Diston's name threw up the Catalogue of Records from the RPS Annual Exhibitions. Adam Diston exhibited there 28 times between 1870 and 1892.

In 1870 he displayed four pictures including 'The Broken Toe' and another entitled: 'Waiting for Change'.

This is exactly what I deduced was going on in the fishwife photo. The old woman leans on the wainscotting to support the heavy creel on her back, but she has put down her head creel which looks empty.

Perhaps the absent figure through the half open door has bought the contents. She can wait for her few coppers, must get these straight in the cold press at this time of year.

Meanwhile a boy customer has come into the shop and leans on the counter. Like a narrative painter, Diston is inviting us to tell our own story

This isn't a bar, not with a boy and woman in it. I've tried to discern what the objects hanging on the wall are, and wonder if the sign on the wall is legible in the original. It looks like an ironmonger's perhaps."

Eric Eunson, Leven, Fife, Scotland: September 29, 2009