David Octavius Hill

David Octavius Hill Scottish portrait photographers who pioneered the production of calotypes, images developed from paper negatives. Hill (1802-1870) and Adamson (1821-1848) became partners in 1843, when Hill, who had trained as a painter, was preparing a large commemorative canvas featuring several hundred delegates to the founding convention of the Free Church of Scotland. To secure accurate likenesses of his subjects, he enlisted the help of Adamson, a chemist and photographer who had been working with the calotype process since 1842. At a time when most photographers preferred the clarity of the daguerreotype, Hill and Adamson took advantage of the calotype's rough texture to emphasize the overall composition and the character of their subjects, rather than individual details. Hill and Adamson's portraits are notable for their simple composition, straightforward lighting, and quiet dignity. Hill and Adamson also photographed views of the Scottish city of Edinburgh and genre scenes in small Scottish fishing villages. Their professional partnership lasted just five years, until Adamson's death at the age of 27, but during this time they are said to have produced more than 1500 negatives, and their photographs were widely exhibited and sold through art dealers.