{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O181760"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O181760/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020MT4923/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020MT4923/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2020MT4923","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AM5240","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O181760/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O181760","accessionNumber":"E.4-2009","objectType":"Photograph","titles":[{"title":"Three Fishermen","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"The Photographer: Benjamin Brecknell Turner\n\r\nBenjamin Brecknell Turner (1815-1894) was one of the first, and remains one of the greatest, British photographers. He began practising photography in 1849 according to the ‘calotype’ technique patented in 1841 by the British inventor of photography W. H. Fox Talbot (1800-1877), taking out a license directly from him.  Turner exhibited at the world’s first public photographic exhibition, held at London’s Society of Arts in 1852, where he was singled out by a reviewer from the Times as one of the best contributors. In 1855 he won a medal at the Paris Exhibition Universelle and continued exhibiting his photographs in photographic society exhibitions across Britain until the 1880s. \r\n\r\nTurner is best known for his bold and large-scale (30 x 40 cm) albumen prints from calotype negatives showing rural English scenes in the picturesque tradition: ruined abbeys, castles, farmhouses and the rural landscape. However, he also made accomplished portraits of family, friends, and fellow photographers, and for these he often used the newer wet collodion on glass process.\r\n\r\nTurner earned his living from running a successful tallow chandler’s business in the Haymarket, London, making candles and saddle soap. Rather than the professional photographers, it was the Gentleman-amateurs like Turner who contributed the most significantly to the rapid technical and aesthetic development of the medium that occurred in the 1850s. They furthered discussion through meetings and journals, exchanged experimental and technical findings and photographic prints and exhibited in a network of clubs and societies devoted to the art of the photograph. Turner played an active role in such bodies in his role as a founder member, and later vice-president of the Photographic Society of London.\r\n\r\nThis selection of photographs encompasses Turner’s earliest experiments in photography, made barely ten years after the announcement of the invention of the medium. ","physicalDescription":"Waxed calotype negative depicting three men, sailors or fishermen, standing in a line.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Turner, Benjamin Brecknell","id":"A8931"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"x40240"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[],"techniques":[{"text":"calotype","id":"AAT53484"},{"text":"waxed","id":"AAT133289"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Calotype negative, waxed","categories":[{"text":"Photographs","id":"THES48910"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2020MT4923","2006AM5240"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLF","id":"THES49656"},"free":"","case":"X","shelf":"354","box":"K"}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"photograph","id":"AAT46300"}],[{"text":"negative","id":"AAT173497"}],[{"text":"calotype","id":"AAT53484"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"UK","id":"x29336"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca 1849","earliest":"1849-01-01","latest":"1849-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchased through the Cecil Beaton Royalties Fund","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"15.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Length","value":"18.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Edges are frayed and irregularly cut","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Waxed calotype negative by Benjamin Brecknell Turner, image of three fishermen standing next to one another","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Barnes, Martin, 'Benjamin Brecknell Turner: Rural England through a Victorian Lens', London: V&A Publications, 2001, Figure 36, p. 62."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"It is not known who the figures are in this photographic negative, though it is possible that it was made on the Devon or Cornwall coast where Turner is known to have made seascapes. The strong composition of the three centrally placed figures wearing smocks, with the background of boats, shows Turner’s growing ability to make a considered and bold image that use details and an understanding of the environment to give context – one of the hallmarks of his later works.","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"In 1849 Turner took out a licence to practise paper negative, or calotype, photography from its inventor, William Henry Fox Talbot. Prints were made by waxing a negative, such as this, to make it translucent, placing it in contact with a second sheet of sensitised paper and leaving it in the sun. ","date":{"text":"10/2012","earliest":"2012-10-01","latest":"2012-10-31"}},{"text":"Gallery 100, ‘History of photography’, 2012-2013, label texts :\r\n\r\n\r\nBenjamin Brecknell Turner (1815 – 94)\r\nThree Fishermen\r\nAbout 1850\r\n\r\nIn 1849 Turner took out a licence to practise\r\npaper negative, or calotype, photography from\r\nits inventor, William Henry Fox Talbot. Prints were\r\nmade by waxing a negative, such as this, to make\r\nit translucent, placing it in contact with a second\r\nsheet of sensitised paper and leaving it in the sun.\r\n\r\nCalotype negative\r\nMuseum no. E.4-2009\r\n","date":{"text":"11 03 2014","earliest":"2014-03-11","latest":"2014-03-11"}}],"partNumbers":["E.4-2009"],"accessionNumberNum":"4","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":2009,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-05","recordCreationDate":"2009-01-07","availableToBook":false}}