David Octavius Hill British, b. Scotland, 1802-1870; and Robert Adamson British, b. Scotland, 1821-1848
Brought together out of necessity, David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson proved to be collaborators whose work was as inspired as its impact has been long lasting. Hill was born in Perth to a family in the printing and publishing business. Trained as a painter, an occupation pursued throughout his life, Hill also was an illustrator and lithographer. His earliest work, Sketches of Scenery in Perthshire Drawn from Nature and on Stone (1821), published before he was 20, was one of the first in Britain to employ the new medium of lithography. In 1829 he helped found the Royal Scottish Academy, serving as secretary from 1830-70.
Hill turned to photography as an aid for a large group portrait of the 474 ministers who formed the new Free Church of Scotland. Noting the difficulties of such a monumental task, photographic pioneer Sir David Brewster, an associate of William Henry Fox Talbot, introduced Hill to Robert Adamson (born in Brunswick). Trained as an engineer, Adamson had learned the technique of photography from his brother John, whom Brewster had taught. The portraits necessary for Hill's work were the beginning of their collaboration, the two working in Adamson's Edinburgh studio in 1843. Hill is generally thought to be the artistic mind behind their images, while Adamson served as the technician responsible for the camera. This opinion among scholars, however, is shifting toward greater recognition of Adamson's artistic skill.
After Adamson's early death in 1848, Hill stopped working entirely for 10 years before continuing in collaboration with A. McGlashan of Glasgow at a considerably diminished level. The portraits by Hill and Adamson are known for their painterly, Old Master quality and exceptional use of light and shadow. Other images include architecture, landscape, and a series on the small fishing village of Newhaven. T.W.F.
