Pioneering photography: early images of Newhaven’s fishers

A new book brings together work by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, created between 1843 and 1847 with collaborator Jessie Mann. The photographs record the lives of a small Scottish community in Newhaven and make the case that the series may be the first social documentary project.

Robert Adamson set up as a professional photographer at Rock House on Calton Hill, Edinburgh, in March 1843. One of the studio pictures is of Barbara Johnstone Flucker, who presumably supplied fish to the household and may have introduced Hill and Adamson to the Newhaven villagers.

Another striking image, Elizabeth Johnston Hall, was much admired by Walter Benjamin, who was moved by the sitter and by the sense of a breathing, individual presence the calotype conveys. The women of Newhaven appear confident and independent in these pictures.

Scotland, Newhaven, Edinburgh

david hill, robert adamson, jessie mann, newhaven, calotype, social documentary, rock house, calton hill, barbara flucker, walter benjamin