[An archive of 54 bromoil transfer photographs printed on a variety of papers and in different sizes featuring Edinburgh, Fife, the Scottish Borders and scenes from rural life, ca.1907-1945 [photograph].
Hill, Alexander Wilson,1867-1949.
[Edinburgh? : s.n.,
between 1907 and 1945]
This is an important archive of bromoil transfer photographs/prints, consisting of 60 images on 57 paper sheets, by the Scottish amateur photographer A. W. Hill. The collection ranges from unsigned trial prints, three of which printed on the reverse of others, to signed and mounted exhibition prints. The prints are on a variety of papers and in different sizes; most of them are signed and titled in pencil by the photographer. Born in Girvan, southwest Scotland, Alexander Wilson Hill (1867-1949) was a bank manager by profession but also a dedicated photographer. He took up photography in the 1890s after dabbling with painting, and was to become a longstanding member of the Edinburgh Photographic Society (EPS). He became a devotee of pictorialism, a late 19th-century movement which believed that photography should seek to mimic the painting and etching of the time. Using methods such as soft focus, special filters, lens coatings, manipulation of images in the darkroom and exotic printing processes, often on rough-surface printing papers, pictorialist photographs were intentionally fuzzy. They often mirrored the then fashionable impressionist style of painting in their composition and choice of subject matter. Pictorialism went out of fashion after 1914, but Hill remained loyal to its aesthetic, using the bromoil (transfer) process as his preferred means of expression over a period spanning approximately forty years. The bromoil process was introduced in 1907 and was based on a conventional photographic print made on gelatine silver bromide paper. The introduction of a dichromated bleach allowed for the softening of parts of the original silver-based image, enabling the gelatine to absorb an oil-based pigment, applied selectively by the photographer. To achieve a bromoil transfer print this pigmented (bromoil) image was then transferred to plain paper with the aid of a press. The resulting transfer print was therefore a hand-crafted process, in which the image comprised pigment on plain paper, which was not susceptible to the fading more often associated with silver-based prints of the same period. Hill photographed extensively in and around Edinburgh, in particular in the Merchiston area near his home in Polwarth. The archive also includes street scenes and images of workers in rural settings and the fishing industry, adding an unusual 'documentary' edge to images that were otherwise still executed within pictorial traditions. There are also landscapes and coastal views from elsewhere in Scotland and a few examples of portraiture and still life. Hill exhibited from the early 1900s to the 1940s, at regular intervals during the 1920s and 1930s, not just in the UK, but also elsewhere in Europe and in North America. He was a regular exhibitor at the annual exhibition of the EPS, The Scottish National Salon and the London Salon of Photography.  Hill was one of the first to support the idea of the creation of a national collection of Scottish photography and actively encouraged gifts and donations to this end.
Portraits -- 1. 'The Roadman' -- 2. Portrait of woman - not named, possibly Mrs A. W. Hill? -- 3. 'Bait-gatherers returning' -- 4. 'Bait-gatherers returning' (as above) -- 5. 'Fisher girls. Tarbert Loch Fyne' -- 6. 'Fisher Girls. Tarbert' (as above - lighter, less distinct print) -- 7. 'Baiting the lines' -- 8. 'Baiting the lines' (different version from above) -- 9. 'Harbour view' -- 10. 'Dockland' -- 11. 'Good companions' - fishing boat with seagulls -- 12. 'Idle wharves' -- 13. 'Port Seton' -- 14. 'Morrison's Haven' - Prestongrange, East Lothian -- 15. 'Evening St. Abbs' -- 16. 'Cramond "Cruisers"' -- 17. 'Queensferry' - South Queensferry -- 18. 'The Ross Fountain. Edinburgh' -- 19. 'Ross Fountain, Princes Street Gardens' (different view from above) -- 20. 'Nulli secundus' - Royal Scots Greys statue Princes Street -- 21. 'St. John's. Edinburgh' -- 22. 'Harrison Park, Merchiston & Union Canal with Polwarth Parish Church in background' (two landscape views on sheet with images on both sides) -- 23. 'Canal barges', probably Union Canal with Polwarth Parish Church in background -- 24. 'Canal barges' (slightly different version of above) -- 25. 'Cool shades' - park scene, probably Harrison Park, Merchiston -- 26. 'A poet's corner' - Scott Monument, Princes Street -- 27. 'Repairing the tow path' - probably the Union Canal, Edinburgh -- 28. 'An ancient stronghold. Edinburgh Castle' -- 29. 'Modern pilgrims' - group photograph (probably Holyrood Abbey) -- 30. 'In Greyfriars' -- 31. 'Little mothers' - park scene in Harrison Park, Merchiston -- 32. 'Summer evening' - park scene in Harrison Park, Merchiston -- 33. 'Evensong' - landscape view (probably Union Canal with Polwarth Parish Church in background) -- 34. 'Westwards', sheep grazing on hillside on Holyrood Park with Edinburgh in distance -- 35. Forth Rail Bridge -- 36. 'Under the bridge' - Forth Rail Bridge -- 37. 'The road to the farm' -- 38. 'A stack yard' -- 39. 'The cattle man' -- 40. 'The cattle man' (larger version of above) -- 41. 'Weed burning' -- 42. 'Weed burning (different version of above) -- 43. 'Lumberers' -- 44. 'Good bye! Summer' -- 45. Children playing outside tenement building (probably Old Town Edinburgh) -- 46. 'Intruders' - 3 children and shopkeeper outside jeweller's shop -- 47. 'Dominoes' - 2 old men playing dominoes -- 48. 'Demolitions' - men demolishing a building -- 49. 'Morning gossip' - women talking on the street -- 50. 'Clouds over Carrick' -- 51. 'Clouds over Carrick and A view of a bridge' (sheet with images on both sides) -- 52. 'Eileen Donan' & Farming scene (sheet with images on both sides) -- 53. Unidentified landscape (Scottish Highlands?) -- 54. 'Tall trees' -- 55. Probably a view of Linlithgow Loch and Linlithgow Palace in the distance -- 56. River/canal scene with houses and a ruined castle (Linlithgow?) -- 57. 'Who cares?'  - photograph of a copy of H. G. Wells's "Shape of things to come" with ornamental bookends and cigarette in ashtray.
This is an important archive of bromoil transfer photographs/prints, consisting of 60 images on 57 paper sheets, by the Scottish amateur photographer A. W. Hill. The collection ranges from unsigned trial prints, three of which printed on the reverse of others, to signed and mounted exhibition prints. The prints are on a variety of papers and in different sizes; most of them are signed and titled in pencil by the photographer. Born in Girvan, southwest Scotland, Alexander Wilson Hill (1867-1949) was a bank manager by profession but also a dedicated photographer. He took up photography in the 1890s after dabbling with painting, and was to become a longstanding member of the Edinburgh Photographic Society (EPS). He became a devotee of pictorialism, a late 19th-century movement which believed that photography should seek to mimic the painting and etching of the time. Using methods such as soft focus, special filters, lens coatings, manipulation of images in the darkroom and exotic printing processes, often on rough-surface printing papers, pictorialist photographs were intentionally fuzzy. They often mirrored the then fashionable impressionist style of painting in their composition and choice of subject matter. Pictorialism went out of fashion after 1914, but Hill remained loyal to its aesthetic, using the bromoil (transfer) process as his preferred means of expression over a period spanning approximately forty years. The bromoil process was introduced in 1907 and was based on a conventional photographic print made on gelatine silver bromide paper. The introduction of a dichromated bleach allowed for the softening of parts of the original silver-based image, enabling the gelatine to absorb an oil-based pigment, applied selectively by the photographer. To achieve a bromoil transfer print this pigmented (bromoil) image was then transferred to plain paper with the aid of a press. The resulting transfer print was therefore a hand-crafted process, in which the image comprised pigment on plain paper, which was not susceptible to the fading more often associated with silver-based prints of the same period. Hill photographed extensively in and around Edinburgh, in particular in the Merchiston area near his home in Polwarth. The archive also includes street scenes and images of workers in rural settings and the fishing industry, adding an unusual 'documentary' edge to images that were otherwise still executed within pictorial traditions. There are also landscapes and coastal views from elsewhere in Scotland and a few examples of portraiture and still life. Hill exhibited from the early 1900s to the 1940s, at regular intervals during the 1920s and 1930s, not just in the UK, but also elsewhere in Europe and in North America. He was a regular exhibitor at the annual exhibition of the EPS, The Scottish National Salon and the London Salon of Photography.  Hill was one of the first to support the idea of the creation of a national collection of Scottish photography and actively encouraged gifts and donations to this end.