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Extract

The Power of Photography

Charles Newton and the birth of archaeological photography

Rupert Scott on Charles Newton and the birth of archaeological photography. (This article was a footnote to Digging for Glory, Cornucopia 41)

By 1856 photography was no longer new, but recent developments had made it vastly cheaper, faster and more reliable. In 1850 Frederick Scott Archer had developed the wet collodion process, in which a glass plate is coated with a light-sensitive chemical solution, exposed while still moist, then developed in a darkroom. Inexpensive prints could then be made from the glass negative, and the quality of the images was high. Cameras could now be used in the field.

Charles Newton seems to have realised the huge potential value of photography to his expedition only days before its departure. On October 10, 1856 he wrote to the Foreign Office requesting photograhic apparatus at a cost of £75-£100 for use by a sapper trained in photography. The Foreign Office agreed to buy the camera on condition that it remained its property.

Newton makes several good arguments for the value of photography to the venture, principally its use as an archaeological record and its value to admiralty chart-makers.But photography was to have an even more important use: the power to communicate his archaeological endeavours vividly to his superiors in London.

His photographs, developed in the field and sent home, thrilled the Foreign Secretary, who forwarded them to Prince Albert. “The Prince is delighted with these,” writes Clarendon in June 1857. This may help explain why a normally parsimonious government was prepared to finance the expedition for over two years.

The expedition’s photographers worked hard. In fact, in 1857 Corporal Spackman, the original photographer, became ill from overwork and was replaced by Corporal McCartney. The total cost of photographic materials used by the expedition from 1856 to 1859 was over £133, about 2% of the entire budget.

Some 300 photographs were taken, of which not all have survived. Most record the diggings, but time was also found to photograph Bodrum Castle – a 360-degree panorama from the hills above the town – and nearby archaeological sites such as Lagina and Labranda and Didyma.

To read the full article, purchase Issue 41

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Issue 41, 2009 Inside Istanbul’s Grand Hammams
£8.00 / $10.10 / €9.34
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Issue 41, 2009 Inside Istanbul’s Grand Hammams
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