Andrew Pitcairn-Knowles (born Rotterdam 1871, died Hastings 1956) was a pioneering photographic journalist who published his work in the new illustrated magazines of the late 19th and early 20th century. From the turn of the century he travelled around Europe, living in Berlin, Brussels, Paris and Jersey. With his eye for detail, timing and geometry, he accurately captured the leisure activities, sports and customs of the period. Besides their documentary value, his photographs have a quirky and almost surreal quality.
‘Riposo’ (Italian for ‘rest’ or ‘repose’) was a Health Hydro & Dietetic Sanatorium in St. Helen’s Park, Hastings, Sussex. It was founded by Andrew Pitcairn-Knowles in 1913, as one of the first health resorts in the United Kingdom which employed Nature Cure. Nature Cure, or ‘Naturopathy’ as it s sometimes called, is a particular approach in itself but is also the basis of most alternative therapies. One of the fundamental principles of the cure is that illness results from the accumulation of toxins or waste in the body, as a result of an unnatural way of living. Pitcairn-Knowles promoted a variety of treatments: Hydropathy (water and steam applications), Heliotheraphy (sun, air and light treatment), Dietetics, Physical Culture (exercises, manual therapy and massage), the Guelpa Cure and the Schroth Cure. In Riposo many diseases were treated (among others obesity, mental depression, hysteria, insomnia, liver and kidney troubles, rheumatism and skin diseases) but was also open to healthy people.
Of all the cures Pitcairn-Knowles seems to have been most interested in the ‘Schroth Cure.’ It was invented by Johann Schroth around 1718. He prescribed patients to sleep in wet sheets ( called ‘wet packs’) and follow a ‘dry diet’. This diet consisted of four meals a week (only rice, sago, groats, porridge or potatoes) and stale bread in addition. Because Schroth believed copious drinking would weaken the patients, the only fluid they were allowed to drink was wine, on four days a week. This helped them to overcome the weariness that the ‘dry diet’ caused.
Photography was an important tool for Andrew Pitcairn-Knowles during the time he ran ‘Riposo’. He documented treatments, produced educational material and traced the history and methods of the ‘Schroth’ Cure. During a visit to Schroth’s hometown Lindewiese in Austria (now Czech Republic), Pitcairn-Knowles asked villagers to demonstrate the experiments with ‘wet packs’ that Schroth had applied to animals. Pitcairn-Knowles added photographs such as these to his ‘pictorial description of the great healer’s methods.’ Andrew Pitcairn-Knowles, and later his son Gordon Pitcairn-Knowles, used lantern slides to illustrate their lectures on cures. Some photo’s may also have been displayed at an exhibition at Riposo, to inform visitors about the cures employed at the estabablishment. ‘Riposo’ closed in 1962.