HILL, DAVID OCTAVIUS; AND ADAMSON, ROBERT

born 1802, Perth, Perthshire, Scot. died May 17, 1870, Newington, near Edinburgh born 1821, Berunside, Scot. died Jan. 1848, St. Andrews Scottish photographers who collaborated to produce some of the greatest photographic portraits of the 19th century. Originally a landscape painter, Hill made a name for himself at the age of 19 by publishing a series of landscapes printed by lithography. He was a founder member of the Royal Scottish Academy and was secretary of that organization for 40 years. In 1843 Hill decided to paint a large commemorative picture of the founding of the Free Church of Scotland. In order to get an accurate record of the features of the several hundred delegates to the founding convention, Hill decided to make photographic portraits of each of them. He enlisted the collaboration of Robert Adamson, a chemist who for a year had made portraits in calotype, a photographic process by which an image is developed from a paper negative. While Hill and Adamson made portraits of the delegates, most of the prominent Scots of the day came to watch the novel proceedings and have their own portraits made. Hill and Adamson preferred the calotype to the daguerreotype because it suppressed details and emphasized the sitter's personality by allowing his face and hands to dominate the portrait. The portraits of the sculptor John Henning (before 1849) and of George Meikle Kemp (before 1845), architect of the Sir Walter Scott Monument in Edinburgh, show a masterful sense of form, composition, and dramatic use of light and shade. Hill and Adamson did not restrict their activities to photographing Scotland's elite. They recorded many views of Edinburgh, especially in Greyfriars' Churchyard. They also went to small fishing villages, where they did some of their best work, such as "Fishwife, Newhaven, Scotland" (before 1849). After Adamson's death at the age of 27, Hill returned to painting. During their five years of collaboration, Hill and Adamson produced about 1,500 photographs.