THE EXHIBITIONS

The intention was that each exhibition would illustrate a different aspect of the story of D O Hill, Robert Adamson and the calotypes and, in those terms, the first exhibition could not have been more apposite. Dr John Adamson – Photographic Pioneer opened at the National Museum of Scotland on 23 March 2002 and ran until the end of May. Curated by Dr Alison Morrison-Low, it demonstrated the origins of Scottish calotypy, in which Robert Adamson’s elder brother played such a crucial part. If the first fugitive paper images are touching in their simplicity, it is extraordinary that in such a short space of time these were overtaken in technical accomplishment to the point that they became the basis for what Adamson would achieve with Hill. But the reminder was also there that John Adamson was a very distinguished photographer in his own right, as his later work demonstrates. As The Scotsman put it: ‘In his images ... Adamson’s key contribution to the formative years of Scots photography is clear’.

D O Hill and the Origin of Photographic Portraiture at the Talbot Rice Gallery (13 April – 18 May) made a unique contribution by exhibiting rare material from Edinburgh University Library Special Collections, which illustrated how Hill brought his own development as an artist to bear on the new medium of photography. It also, importantly, opened up the debate on the subsequent use of the calotypes by others. The question as to whether the spectator was viewing the handiwork of Alvin Langdon Coburn or James Craig Annan might have been somewhat esoteric; the beauty of the images was self-evident.

Hill was a most prolific and engaging letter writer with a happy tendency to illustrate his epistles with amusing drawings. The National Library of Scotland’s Mr D O Hill Presents his Compliments (29 April – 24 May) was a delightful display of some of its important collection of Hill’s letters.

Hill and Adamson’s Photographs of Linlithgow was opened on 4 May by Tam Dalyell MP and ran until 25 October at Annet House Museum, Linlithgow. It reproduced the seventeen images of the town made in 1845 and explored the reasons for their creation. Hill had a close connection with the railway engineer John Miller, so it is probably no coincidence that Linlithgow Station features prominently in the calotypes. The association with Miller extended beyond their professional relationship to the personal, as Charlotte Hill spent much time with the Miller family.

The main, indeed definitive, exhibition of the festival was Facing the Light, which opened at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery on 10 May 2002 and ran to 15 September. From the outset, it was expected that it would provide the key to the entire project and it did not disappoint. The curator was Dr Sara Stevenson, whose achievements and importance in this field is beyond question. Some two hundred images were on show and the attendance exceeded forty-two thousand (see 'Statistics' below), this figure being achieved despite some Sunday and evening closures occasioned by industrial action by NGS staff. The exhibition received a great deal of attention in the media and the reviews were thoroughly positive, some outstandingly so.

The Alchemy of Light at the Hunterian Gallery, University of Glasgow (17 May – 7 September), featured examples of the University’s marvellous collection of Hill and Adamson negatives – not least the ‘panorama’ images of Edinburgh from the castle. It also provided a reminder of the Glasgow dimension in the Annan photogravure versions of the calotypes. An additional interest was in seeing the Rock House printing-out frames and negative-holders, giving a strong sense of connection with Hill and Adamson through solid artefacts as well as the familiar fragile paper images.

St Andrews University (18–26 May) exhibited a number of its photographic treasures in Masterpieces of Early Photography at the St Andrews Museum in Kinburn Park. Curated by Dr Graham Smith and Dr Norman Reid, the show contained a number of items not previously on public exhibition. It included the work not only of the Adamsons but of the scientist pioneers at the very birth of the new medium, and it provided full proof of St Andrews as the true birthplace of the calotype in Scotland.

Perth Museum and Art Gallery’s The Remarkable Mr Hill (6 July – 12 October) was indeed remarkable not only in the almost complete absence of photography but in establishing that D O Hill should be recognised as an important artist for his work long before he met Robert Adamson. By being a genuinely accomplished landscape painter while not yet out of his teens and a pioneer of lithography soon afterwards, this son of Perth clearly deserves celebration on these accounts alone. It was also valuable to see acknowledged the crucial role of his brother Alexander in the promotion of art works, and also to learn of the family background.

It was one of the stated intentions of the D O Hill Bicentenary Festival to be contemporary in its outlook, even though it was dealing with historical events and materials. While all of the exhibitions mentioned above dealt with the early days of Scottish photography, there was also the creation of new work as part of the education project (q.v.). One particular exhibition, however, offered a special perspective on the legacy of the calotypists. Homage to Hill and Adamson, a collaboration between Edinburgh College of Art and Napier University, showed the work of students and staff in the respective photography departments who interpreted the themes, circumstances and technical challenges of the calotypes as contemporary work, to great and often amusing effect.

Although not precisely exhibitions, mention should also be made of the display of Hill–Adamson images at the Camera Obscura on Castle Hill in Edinburgh, and of the access made available by the Free Church of Scotland to the celebrated Disruption Painting at their offices on The Mound.

In a related exhibition, the work of Hill and Adamson's distinguished successor Dr Thomas Keith was celebrated in a display at the Edinburgh Central Libraries on George IV Bridge.

Finally, it should be remembered that Hill’s was not the only bicentenary in 2002. His friend Hugh Miller was also celebrated throughout the year and a travelling exhibition of Miller-related Hill and Adamson calotypes in reproduction toured a number of venues including Ullapool, Fort William, Cromarty, Inverness, Thurso, and Peebles (this last until 25 January 2003).

It is impossible to calculate precisely how many people attended all the exhibitions but it was clearly the greatest number ever to have seen the work of Hill and Adamson photographs at first hand. (See also 'Statistics').