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Professional Photographer and
Exhibitor
Andrew Swan Watson
FRPS
©
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Early Photography
Andrew
Swan Watson, photographer
and portrait painter, served his apprenticeship with Marshall
Wane and gained a reputation
for his cloud pictures and transparencies. Some of these, showing clouds over the
sea, are in the National Portrait Gallery collection.
Titles include:
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“Silently
the shades of evening fall”
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“The
last faint beam is fading
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"On
yonder dark blue deep”
At
the time of his apprenticeship, William Crooke was
Operator in the studio.
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Exhibitions
In
common with Marshall Wane, Andrew Swan Watson entered his photographs in
exhibitions. He won awards
from Crystal Palace, Dundee, Edinburgh, London, Ireland and Vienna.
In
1890 EPS exhibition, he exhibited:
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silver
print "Evening
Studies"
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silver print "In
the Soft Evening when the Wind is Stilled"
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several platinotype landscapes
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one carbon transparency
On 1
October 1926, Swan Watson, then President of the
Edinburgh Professional Photographers' Society, was congratulated
for having won the Professional Photographers' Association Gold Medal for
his portrait of Lord Sands at the Society's All British Professional
Exhibition
[BJP 1926, p159]
He
was also a respected judge of photographic exhibitions.
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Studio
A Swan Watson then
started his own business, having acquired Viewpark Art Studios at
Bruntsfield from the late George Shaw.
From
these studios he produced work in silver, carbon and platinotype.
'View Park Art Studios' had eighteen apartments on a single floor.
“There
was a reception room in the form of a gallery forty feet long by twenty-four
feet wide, from which led a wide passage, ninety feet long with twelve windows,
each fitted with transparencies of cloud pictures, landscapes, seascapes and
portraits.
A second
studio in the premises was used for group pictures and for all kinds of exterior
effects. When visited in 1892, a
third studio was fitted with a boat and sail, water and imitation rocks.
The grounds were used for equestrian and other photographs.”
[BJP1892:
p613]
Andrew
Swan Watson was based at this studio for about 40 years. The business continued,
after his death, until 1958.
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FRPS
Andrew Swan Watson was awarded his FRPS in 1925 or 1926.
At the time he was President of the
Edinburgh
Society of Professional Photographers. The Society congratulated him
on his 'FRPS' at their Meeting on 1 February 1926.
[BJP 1926,
p159]
Andrew
Swan Watson also became an Honorary Life Member of
the Photographers' Association of America. |
Other
Interests
Andrew
Swan Watson was an organist and choirmaster in Morningside Congregational
Church.
He travelled extensively in France and Italy, and gave
many lectures on Venice, the Vatican and the picture galleries of Europe.
[EPS:
Obituary by AH Baird]
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