Orkney Photographers
The Photographic Archive holds images from a number of photographers
that worked in Orkney, with the first setting up in the 1870s.
The following photographers are among the most significant in
the collection. Click on any name to read a short biography:
William
H. Wood
Tom Kent
Robert H.
Robertson
William Hourston
David Horne
Wilfred
Marr
Phoenix
Photography
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Archive
Biographies
William Hugh Wood was born in 1830 at Curcabreck in Rendall
but spent most of his life living and working in Finstown. He
was employed as Postmaster in the village, a position he took
over from his father-in-law and was one of the first photographers
to be working in Orkney, certainly producing photographs by the
1870s. We hold approximately 1000 of Wood's original glass plates,
the majority of those being portraits. Sadly, due to the passage
of time, the names of his subjects will probably never be known
but the photographs have captured a moment in their lives. Some
are dressed in their best clothes and others are in their working
clothes or uniforms.
William H. Wood also photographed some of the buildings in the
area, from lowly cottages to grander homes, and some of these
images have survived to offer us a glimpse of a bygone time, a
time before motor transport, central heating and all the other
trappings of life that we take for granted nowadays. His photographic
equipment would have been primitive compared to modern day standards
but his surviving images demonstrate a high degree of skill and
an obvious ability on the part of the photographer. W.H. Wood
died, aged 74, on the 30th July 1903, leaving Orkney with a precious
glimpse into a long forgotten way of life.
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Tom Kent is probably Orkney's most famous photographer.
He was born in the island of Eday in 1863 but the family moved to the Parish of Firth on the Orkney Mainland soon after. It was after emigrating
to America and becoming a student of renowned Chicago photographer
M.J. Steffens that he learned the skills that allowed him to set
up shop on his return to Orkney. More than just a recorder of
events he had an eye for composition as well as a seemingly unerring
ability to be in the right place at the right time. He used the
most sophisticated equipment available at the time, but that would
still mean having to carry around a large heavy wooden camera
and a quantity of glass plates, no mean feat in itself.
The quality of Tom Kent's photographs was recognised outside
Orkney and he contributed regularly to professional magazines
as well as pictorial publications such as Country Life. Sadly
Tom seems to have fallen on hard times in later life and when
he died, on 11th August 1936, his passing went almost unnoticed,
a sad end for a man who had played such an important part in documenting
life in Orkney.
View a Gallery of
Tom Kent photographs...
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Robert Heddle Robertson was born at Grutha, South Ronaldsay
in 1872 and moved to Stromness in the late 1890s. Stromness was
a bustling port at that time due to the herring fishing industry
and Robert opened two Grocery shops, one in Alfred Street and
the other in Victoria Street. His photography was carried out
mostly as an enthuisiastic amateur though he did sell postcards
and photographic equipment in his shops. He lived and worked in
Stromness for fourteen years, continuing to photograph events
around Stromness and the West Mainland. However, in that time
the herring industry had gradually declined and eventually Robert
and his family left Stromness, taking up an appointment as manager
of the Co-operative store in Pierowall, on the island of Westray.
He continued to take photographs after moving to Westray and
the island is fortunate to have such an excellent photographic
record of the life and people of that time. R.H. Robertson continued
to take photographs for many years, living to the grand old age
of ninety. He died in 1962. The Photographic Archive has over
2500 of his original glass plate negatives in the collection.
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William Hourston was born in Evie in 1895. He moved to
Stromness in the 1930s and originally ran a billiard saloon and
Barber shop, but his true interest was photography. The raising
of the scuttled ships of the German High Seas Fleet in Scapa Flow
gave him an opportunity to exploit his photographic skills and
he produced many memorable images of the work over the years.
William had a good eye for the picturesque and took many photographs
of Stromness and further afield, producing calendars and postcards
of his work. He had trained as a joiner and was able to make a
lot of his own darkroom equipment. He was also, for a time, an
occasional Lighthouse Keeper on Suleskerry, an isolated rocky
outpost about thirty miles west of Orkney. Of course, he took
along his camera and recorded the huge numbers of sea birds and
seals that frequented the area.
William Hourston served in both World Wars, receiving injuries during
the 1st World War that affected him all his life. He continued
to live in Stromness, taking photographs late into the 1950s,
remaining in the town until his death in 1968.
View a gallery of
Hourston photographs
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David Horne was born in 1877 in Kirkwall. His father,
also David, ran a bacon curing business in Kirkwall and when young
David was old enough he was trained in the business, eventually
taking it over when his father retired. In his spare time David
was a man of many talents, producing a number of books of prose
and poetry. He also contributed regularly to a number of newspapers
and magazines.
David Horne Jr.'s interest in photography was purely as an amateur,
but this is not to say that his work was in any way inferior.
He used high quality equipment and had a degree of skill that
many a professional would envy. David's photography concentrated
mainly on Kirkwall and the surrounding area but he managed to
capture scenes that had perhaps been neglected by other photographers
at the time.
He also took a lot of photographs in the Parish of Deerness,
around the home of his wife to be, Jane Anne Foubister, at Newbanks.
Most of the photographs that David Horne Jr. produced were carefully
preserved and, thanks to the generosity of his daughter in law,
have become an important part of the Photographic Archive collection.
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James Wilfred Marr was born in 1922. On leaving school
he began work at the Orcadian newspaper, working there until he
was called up into the Royal Navy, where he served aboard a Minesweeper.
During his time in the Navy he received an award from the Royal
Humane Society for saving a drowning man outside Ramsgate Harbour.
After the 2nd World War ended Wilfred rejoined the staff of The
Orcadian and also took up photography again as a hobby. He soon
came to be in demand for photographing functions and events around
Orkney, but his biggest love was to photograph the Orkney landscape
in all it's many changing moods. He was also a founding member
of the Kirkwall Camera Club.
In 1957 Wilfred left The Orcadian to open a photography studio
in Albert Street, Kirkwall, where he specialised in wedding photography
and portraits while continuing to document the countryside around
him. In 1960 he acquired Rendall's Printing Office in Stromness,
but still continued with his photography, providing images for
use in books and catalogues as well as an annual calendar of local
views. In later life Wilfred took up painting as another way to
depict the Orkney landscape that he loved so much. He retired
in 1988 and, sadly, died just a few weeks after that. He left
behind a fantastic collection of over 6500 negatives that have
since been donated to the Photographic Archive by his widow.
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Phoenix Photography:
Dougie Shearer was born at 43 Albert Street, Kirkwall,
and lived there for most of his life. Dougie's grandfather, D.B.
Peace, was a pioneer of cinema in Orkney, opening the Electric
Theatre in 1912. Dougie was born in that same year so grew up
steeped in the world of film and photography. The cinema business
moved to new premises in 1928 with the opening of the Albert Kinema
and Dougie left school at the earliest opportunity to work there.
The Albert Kinema was destroyed by fire in 1947 and his uncle
consequently instigated the building of the Phoenix Cinema, which
opened in 1955, and at which Dougie and most of his family worked.
In light of his other interests it's unsuprising that Dougie
developed an interest in photography. He had been recording local
musicians and releasing the recordings through the label Phoenix
Recordings, so started to take photographs for the record sleeves.
This move into photography resulted in the setting up of Phoenix
Photography in 1965, later to be joined by his nephew Donald
Shearer.
Phoenix photography covered events in Orkney until the late 1980s,
with Dougie winding down in the mid 1980s and Donald carrying
on for a few more years. In addition to social photography they
recorded many major events in the history of the islands such
as the construction of the oil terminal on Flotta. Dougie Shearer
kindly gifted his entire photographic collection to the Photographic
Archive in the 1990s. He died, aged 89, on 16th March 2002.
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