Photograph by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, 'The Letter', Marion Finlay, Mrs Margaret Dryburgh Lyall, and Mrs Grace Finaly Ramsay, Newhaven, salted paper print from calotype negative, 1843-1847

One of fifty sepia-coloured photographs in a boud album depicting three women gathering round to read a letter.

Given by Sir Theodore Martin, 1869

The famous partnership and collaboration between the artist David Octavius Hill and the photographer Robert Adamson came into being originally in order to produce photographic portraits to assist Hill as a painter. The team produced a wide range of superb, valuable work and they were the first consistently and successfully employ calotype process in Great Britain.

1843 Hill was introduced to Adamson and they began to collaborate on the production of calotype portraits as reference images for the painting ‘The Signing of the Deed of Demission’ which represents 474 dignitaries. Essentially, Hill posed and arranged the individual sitters or groups while Adamson attended to the technical aspects of the exposure, processing, and printing.

Some of their most powerful images, however, were made in Scottish seashore villages and depict fishermen and women. They also photographed the architecture and monument of Scotland and made calotypes of their friends posed in medieval armour or costumes.

This image is one of a series showing people from the Scottish fishing village of Newhaven. It was made by the renowned partnership of the painter David Octavius Hill and the chemist Robert Adamson.

Hill and Adamson used watercolour paper for both negatives and prints. Its fibres softened the image and enhanced the painterly effect. In this image, the clever use of light and shade and the careful positioning of the sitters' hands add to the composition.

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