The new exhibition in the museum is “Frozen in Time”, showing the impact of photography in freezing images people, places and incidents for a split-second, which would otherwise have been lost and forgotten. We are most grateful to Ian McWhirter, Derek Grieve and Helen Whittle for the loan of old cameras and accessories predating the digital age.
The beautiful engineering of some of these items is worthy of attention for its own sake, creating a piece of equipment that was a joy to handle and operate, unlike the ubiquitous plastic boxes we use today. There was also the inventiveness of those who built equipment for a purpose that was not otherwise accessible. The knowledge and enthusiasm of amateur photographers, who in the early days not only took photos but also processed them through various chemical stages to produce beautiful results that were quite individual, is admirable.
We have what must be my own favourite piece, a photographic enlarger, a wooden case with bellows to extend the lens, many fine brass adjustments and the open back protected by a black cloth hood. The lighting was most likely a paraffin lamp inside its metal case, and the film in a wooden frame was projected onto a wall or white sheet.
There is the story of the popular Kodak Brownie cameras demonstrated by several examples, which put photography into the hands of everybody, together with some of their humorous advertising. We have a rare Opalotype, whereby a photograph was printed onto a piece of milk glass which would then be framed only around the edges and hung in a window so that the daylight shone through producing a transparent image. We even have a Daguerrotype, an early process invented in 1839 by Daguerre, who took the image onto a silver plate sensitized by iodine and developed by mercury vapour. What price Health and Safety!
Do pay us a visit, and as you take those digital holiday photos, think of all the work of those enthusiasts of the past, who were determined to preserve images of their life and times.
