Photograph by Calvert Richard Jones, View of a narrow street

View along a street framed by full image height dark edges of building at each side. Facades of buildings fall in deep perspective to the end of the street.A street lamphangs on the left side of the street. A sign reads 'HALL No 343'. A Strong, unfaded print.

During the 1830s William Henry Fox Talbot invented a way of making paper negatives and from them multiple paper prints. In doing so, he laid the foundations of modern photography. Calvert Jones learned of these developments in 1839 through a neighbour who was a cousin of Talbot. Jones lived in South Wales and he made many photographs there and in the West of England. He also travelled widely, making photographs on the continent. Jones' work stands out in the early development of photography because he was one of the first to apply a schooled artist's eye to the medium.

Many of Jones' photographs made in Bristol focus on the architecture of an earlier period. At a time when parts of old Bristol were being lost to Victorian development, Jones was aware of the ephemeral nature of the medieval buildings. This composition, with the perspective of the street framed by high forground buildings, is a formula for street scenes that Jones used in other locations: particularly in Italy and in Belgium. The narrowness of the street in this photograph is accentuated by the restricted gap in the foreground and by position chosen for the street lamp which occupies the cleft between the buildings.

This may be Mary-le-Port Street in the heart of medieval Bristol. If so, the foreground shows the very narrow dark end of the street where it joined into High Street.

This narrow street scene is an early example of the calotype process. In 1839 William Henry Fox Talbot invented a way of making paper negatives and from them multiple paper sprints Jones learned of these developments through a neighbour in South Wales, who was a cousin of Talbot.

Jones often visited Bristol and many of his photographs record the old part of the city. They reveal his interest in antiquities and his training and ability as a watercolorist. Several of his street scenes are made from a view point such as this: framed by a dark archway or high buildings to left and right. This composition accentuate the restricted width of the street and draws attention to the street lamp -a signature of so many of his city centre photographs.

PH.39-1983