Day: October 12, 2007

The Old Curiosity Shop, Port Arthur, Tasman Peninsula

October 12, 2007

An early pioneer of dark tourism, William Radcliffe published a guide to the ruins of the Port Arthur prison site in the 1930s with photographs by John Watt Beattie taken in the early 1900s. The shame of convict heritage, a keenly felt stigma of the times, required concealment of real names. On page 25, he advised:

In consideration of relatives who may be living, the actual names have been omitted. If any doubt of the facts is occasioned in any way, the records may be seen on application at my museum at Port Arthur. … More The Old Curiosity Shop, Port Arthur, Tasman Peninsula

Samuel Clifford: Franklin Square

Dry plate photography 1860s

October 12, 2007

Published in London, The Photographic News contained a wealth of news and technical information about processes and equipmen. The 1863 issues covered a year in the development of dry-plate photography, solar photography, photolithography, glass house construction and a thousand other items of interest in advanced photophysics and photochemistry. Alfred Bock and Thomas J. Nevin had reconstructed Bock’s glass house at their studio, The City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth-street, Hobart Town, by 1865, and produced some extraordinary solar photographs. Samuel Clifford, also a partner of Thomas J. Nevin, applied information from such a source to produce his much praised dry plate photographs using Russell’s Tannin Process, which were exhibited at the Melbourne Intercolonial Exhibition in 1866. The pseudonymous “Sol” remarked of Clifford’s expertise: – “Surely no wet photography ever excelled these delightful representations of nature” … More Dry plate photography 1860s