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The East Gable of St. Andrews Cathedral and St. Regulus Tower from the Northwest.

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The East Gable of St. Andrews Cathedral and St. Regulus Tower from the Northwest.

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Public domain photograph of 19th-century Scotland, artistic early photography, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Robert Adamson was a Scottish photographer, who is known for his collaboration with David Octavius Hill in producing some of the most important early photographs of Scotland. He was a master of the wet-plate collodion process, which was a popular photographic technique in the 19th century. Together, Hill and Adamson produced a large body of work that depicted the people and landscapes of Scotland during the mid-19th century. Their photographs are considered some of the most important early photographs of Scotland and are widely recognized for their technical excellence and artistry.
He ran his own studio in Calton Hill, Edinburgh. Unfortunately, Adamson died at the age of 27 due to alcoholism. Despite his short life, his photographs continue to be celebrated as some of the most beautiful and important photographs of Scotland.

Robert Adamson (1821-1848) was a Scottish chemist and pioneering photographer, best known for his collaboration with the artist David Octavius Hill in the early days of photography. Born on 26 April 1821 in St Andrews, Scotland, Adamson grew up in a family of shipowners. In 1843, Adamson met David Octavius Hill, a painter, and the two formed a partnership that would contribute significantly to the development of photography as an art form. Their collaboration began at a time when the calotype process, an early photographic technique, had just been introduced by William Henry Fox Talbot. The calotype process produced an image on paper coated with silver iodide, allowing multiple positive prints to be made from a single negative. Adamson and Hill set out to document various aspects of Scottish life and culture, including landscape, architecture and portraiture. They are particularly famous for their depictions of the people of Newhaven, a fishing village near Edinburgh. This work culminated in the production of a collection known as the 'Disruption of 1843', which captured scenes from the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Tragically, Robert Adamson's career was cut short by his untimely death at the age of 26 in 1848. The exact cause of his death remains uncertain, but it is widely believed to have been related to the chemicals used in the photographic process, which were often toxic. Despite his short career, Adamson's contributions to the early development of photography, particularly through his collaboration with David Octavius Hill, have had a lasting impact on the history of the medium.

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1842
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J. Paul Getty Museum
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Digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program.

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