Photography
William Notman, visionary photographer
William Notman settled in Montreal in 1856 with his family. He quickly built a support network among Montreal's Scottish community and obtained the financial backing needed to start a photographic studio, without any prior experience. At the forefront of major trends, he adopted the best technologies of the time and knew how to innovate. For example, he was interested in the production of composite photographs, which required large production teams and which earned him a lot of notoriety. His innovative approach made his studio the Ubisoft of the 19th century.
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Notman was also a visionary in the use of photography for the production of printed material in magazines and newspapers. He quickly saw the opportunity to produce quality landscape photographs in guidebooks to inspire travel. His influence was felt throughout North America. Not only was he an expert artist and technician, he was also an accomplished and successful businessman.
The McCord Museum's Notman exhibition, presented during the winter of 2017, is an eloquent eulogy of Notman's work and contribution.
William Notman was born in Scotland (1826) and died in Montreal (1891) at the age of 65.
The McCord Museum's Notman Collection
200,000 glass negatives
400,000 tests recorded in a detailed and numbered register
Many original prints.
This virtually complete collection of Notman's work was purchased in 1953 by a consortium through the initiative of McGill University and transferred to the McCord Museum.
This museum was established by David Ross McCord in 1921, initially to transfer objects related to his family collection.
Studio Notman: customer-centric approach above all
The studio is designed as a theatrical space, the customer experience was carefully orchestrated, from the moment they arrived in the large entrance hall.
The technical challenges of photography at the time imposed many constraints on the act of taking a photo: it was in fact an awkward and difficult experience for the client:
Long exposure time of the shots
Use of numerous accessories to help the subject stabilize movements
Lots of bulky pieces of equipment
Difficulty taking pictures with children
Notman has worked to make the process of taking pictures easier.
Warm welcome area, with many examples of photos taken by the studio
Distribution of a booklet before the meeting which offers advice on how to prepare and choose your outfit
Highlights the importance of taking the time to put yourself in a positive state, to be in a good mood
Values the artistic dimension of the process
Model/actor relationship is put forward to inspire the client.
Upon his arrival in Montreal, Notman cultivated a visionary attitude to establish a commercial organization that included a studio and the distribution of images, with numerous partners. He saw the potential to promote portraiture as a tool for expressing personal and collective identity. He put forward a clear artistic vision that would be significant for his time: creativity in the service of portraiture and publications. He remained on the lookout for technical innovations. He used a method of numbering and systematically classifying photographs, which allows today's researchers to continue exploring his work.
Launch of a photo studio in Montreal
Photographic process
From the beginning of his career, William Notman did not use the daguerreotype process popular in his time, introduced by French inventor Louis Daguerre in 1839. This process uses a polished copper surface covered with silver oxide prepared with fumes to make it sensitive to light.
Notman preferred to use the wet collodion process, discovered by British inventor Frederick Scott Archer in the early 1850s, which required the use of a chemically coated glass plate immersed in a silver nitrate solution. This still-wet plate was placed in the camera.
The daguerreotype process allows for the production of highly accurate images without producing a negative: the final image is the positive. While the collodion process was a very fragile process (because the wet plates had to be loaded into the camera, exposed to hazards such as dust and scratches that could ruin the image), the resulting plate is a negative and allows for multiple prints. The exposure time for a plate using the wet collodion process is 2 to 5 minutes in a studio, which requires the figures to remain still, using poses and tricks to reduce movement that makes the images blurry.
From 1871, a new process using gelatin as a substitute for collodion allowed the production of silver bromide emulsions. These were dry plates, easier to use and 40 times more sensitive than wet collodion plates. Exposure time in the studio, with natural lighting, was reduced to as little as 5 to 30 seconds, which offered a new approach to portrait production.
Concept of photographic purity
This controversy originated in Europe in the 1850s, initiated by portrait painters who saw their profession threatened by the arrival of the camera. During the pictorialist period, photographers had to coexist with traditional painters, who did everything to protect their preserve from the portrait industry. A pictorialist photographer had to distinguish himself by offering an artistically inspired product, with blurred images and varied chemical post-processing, in order to compensate for the mechanical aspect of the camera.
Notman did not hesitate to make retouches directly onto the negative (glass plates). Notman's position on the great pictorialist debate is equivocal. He produced many portraits of a modern style, but he also retained the services of painters who cheerfully retouched the original photographs.
In the great debate between the modernists and the pictorialists, Notman was sometimes referred to as a cheat. The modernists were referred to with reductive comments such as "machine artists," automatic, mechanical art. In contrast, the pictorialists were romantics incapable of truly creating art. This debate would continue until the 1920s, after which the modernist movement definitively took hold.
19th century composite photograph
Notman's production of composite photographs was discredited by 20th-century modernists as a tasteless Victorian "rich level." The use of composite photography solved many of the technical problems of early photography, particularly the requirement for long exposures and the challenge of landscape photography.
When shooting outdoor images, photographic processes were unable to capture the non-reflective parts of landscapes, such as bodies of water and the always-light sky. It was therefore easier to paint the sky and water surfaces.
When it comes to creating a large group for a photo, there are several problems: achieving balanced lighting quality across the entire painting and harmonious expressions of the characters. Thus, if we take each character individually, it is possible to ensure the assembly and the general composition while ensuring the quality of the whole.
The most famous example of a composite image is Notman's panorama of the Skating Carnival (1870). It is an artistic creation of a historical event: Prince Arthur's visit to Montreal during the inauguration of the Victoria Bridge. Each figure is first posed in the studio in ballroom costume with an individual image taken. All the figures are then assembled on the final canvas, taking into account perspective and the interaction between the figures.
The original work measures 20 x 27 1/2 inches. Photographed again, the final image is reproduced in a format of 37 1/2 x 53 1/2 inches, made from a projection onto a canvas coated with a photosensitive emulsion for several hours, then washed and stretched.
Notman's masterpiece, the composite “The Skating Carnival,” produced in 1870 in honor of Prince Arthur's visit, as featured in the McCord Museum's 2017 exhibition. Over 300 individual photographs are combined with a painted background to produce the final photograph. This production reflects Notman's innovative approach and the production capacity of his team of artists and technicians.
Mrs. Prior (1870) poses for the composite Skating Carnival photo (right side), in the “Girl of the Period” style. She would be a seasoned Instagrammer today, as she has often been noted in Notman’s photos. Ultra-chic, Mrs. Prior wears a hat topped with a stuffed squirrel, and the remains of the dress she had used a few years earlier.
1856: Notman moves to Montreal (from Glasgow, to flee accusations of commercial fraud)
1856: he began documenting the construction of the Victoria Bridge
1858: he obtained the contract to photograph the construction of the Victoria Bridge (then the 8th wonder of the world)
1860: enlarged studio at 7 and 9 Bleury
1870: a staff of 55 employees, with 14 studios in Canada and the United States
1870: production of the composite Skating Carnival, at the Windsor Hotel, on the occasion of Prince Arthur's visit to Montreal
1875: Contract for documentation of the construction of the trans-Canadian railway
1876: buys the famous house at 51 Sherbrooke West
1878: Participates in the Paris World's Fair and wins a silver medal for the composite photo "Montreal Snowshoe Club"
Career, William Notman
1891: William dies, his brother and son continue the business activities
1955: Death of Charles, studio archives sold to a consortium structured by McGill University, and transferred to the McCord Museum.
References, William Notman
Notman Collection Archives , McCord Museum
Notman, Visionary Photographer, 2016, McCord Museum (Notman exhibition catalog)
Portrait of visionary photographer at McCord Museum , (2016) The Montreal Gazette
Dr. Jeanne SM Willette and Art History Unstuffed
Flickr, The Commons Notman Photo Collection
Management of photographic archives (2003) Presses de l’Université du Québec