19thC; Jones Calvert, Street scene

A street with a foreground of substantial Georgian public buildings, followed by a row of canopied shop fronts. Large wheeled carriages stand by the railings on the right and a woman pauses by the pavement on the left.
A deep brown clear image with fading to all edges and cut off corners. There are blemishes by the columns of the foreground building.

Calvert Richard Jones was one of the first to learn of W.H.F.Talbot's photographic discoveries of the late 1830s through Talbot's cousin and friends who lived near to Jones in South Wales. Subsequently, Jones became one of the few Britons to produce a substantial body of calotypes in Britain and abroad. His work stands out in the development early photography because of his ability to fuse his technical skill with the influence of his training as a watercolorist.

Jones passed through Bristol on numerous occasions while travelling to other destinations from his home in South Wales. Taken at an angle with the inclusion of an area of foreground interest. it has the same compositional format as other photographs he took of public buildings. an area of Many of his photographs in Bristol focus on buildings of antiquarian interest, exceptionally this view shows the Assembly rooms at Clifton. Clifton was the centre of fashionable Bristol and the location of choice of his wife, Anne Honesties photograph may be an early example of photo reportage: these Georgian rooms had just been replaced with new larger rooms further down the hill towards the city centre.

Jones may have chosen to photograph the Clifton Assembly Rooms (opened 1811) because the new larger Victoria Rooms had just been built (1842) or possibly because the rooms were known as the location from which the young Princess Victoria first waved to crowds. For 30 years the Assembly Rooms had been the focal point for Clifton society. Jones and his wife stayed in Clifton on his way from South Wales to France in 1841, he wrote to Talbot, '.. as Mrs Jones wishes to stay 2 days in Clifton I might run up to London if you should be there ..' (LA41-34)

The Georgian buildings in this early example of the calotype process were at the centre of fashionable Bristol: they are the Clifton Assembly rooms. A caloype was a paper negative and the process was invented by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1839. The photographer, Calvert Jones, was introduced to the process by a cousin of Talbot and by close friends who lived near to Jones in South Wales.

Jones' work stands out in the development of early photography because of his ability to fuse his new skill in photography with the influence of his training as a watercolorist. Taken at an angle to the buildings, the photograph with carriages and a basket by the foreground railings conforms to contemporary rules of composition. Many of Jones' photographs in Bristol focus on buildings of antiquarian interest. Exceptionally this photograph may be an early example of photo reportage: these assembly rooms had just been replaced with new larger rooms further down the hill towards the city centre.

PH.61-1983