6
Bedding, Thomas, “Exposure Tables and Exposure Meters,” in
British Journal of Photography 1901. London: Henry Green-
wood & Co., 1901, 675–706.
ADAM-SALOMON, ANTOINE-SAMUEL
(1818–1881)
French sculptor and photographer. Born at La
Ferté-sous-Jouarre, Seine-et-Marne,
Adam-Salomon was destined for a mercantile career
when in his youth he entered the Fontainebleu factory
of Jacob Petit as a modeler. When his talent for sculpting
was discovered, he received an offi cial scholarship to
study in Paris. Salomon turned to photography in mid-
life and continued to practice both art forms. By the time
his portrait work came to public attention at the Paris
International Exhibition of 1867, Salomon had already
been practicing photography for eight or nine years,
accumulating 15,000 negatives of the most estimable
sitters. His portraits, three-quarter length fi gures, and
some full-length, reveal his marvelous arrangement of
light and shade.
Working in a 10 5/8” × 8 1/4” format, Salomon’s
prints were renowned for their deep rich blacks, pure
whites, and continual tonal gradations between these ex-
tremes. Discussed in terms of their “brilliancy, boldness,
and relief,” his portraits often took one hour to pose,
fi fteen-seconds to shoot, and up to three hours to print.
Salomon observed, “It is far more diffi cult to produce a
good photographic portrait than a painted portrait.”
Solomon used special lighting techniques which
may have accounted for his rich graduated tonal range.
In his studio, even overall light emanated from the
ground-glass ceiling and light from clear-glass sides
could be modulated by a curtain. Equally, his inventive
props adjusted to the subject’s height making the sit-
ter comfortable and the pose appear more natural. His
illustrious client list included: the architect Charles
Garnier, French philologist, Joseph Ernest Renan, the
dramatist Emile Augier, and journalist and novelist
Alphonse Karr. He was praised and photographed by
his contemporary Nadar.
Margaret Denny
ADAMSON, JOHN (1809–1870)
British photographer and physician
As a member of the British scientifi c community in the
1840s, John Adamson was an early innovator in photog-
raphy, producing the fi rst calotype photographs in Scot-
land and making key technical changes to stabilize the
process and improve results. Though he never practiced
photography professionally, Adamson instructed and
encouraged many others, helping establish the primacy
of Scottish photography in the medium’s early years.
Most notably, in training his younger brother Robert
Adamson, he contributed to the celebrated collaboration
between Robert and David Octavius Hill that set the
standard for artistic achievement in photography.
Adamson was born in Fife, Scotland in 1809, the fi rst
of 10 children to Alexander Adamson and Rachel Mel-
ville, farm owners from Burnside, Scotland. He studied
medicine at St. Andrews University and the University
of Edinburgh from 1826 to 1829 and concluded his
studies in Paris in the early 1830s. After working as a
ship’s surgeon in Asia, he returned to Scotland to open a
medical practice in St. Andrews in 1835. He befriended
the eminent scientist Sir David Brewster while lecturing
part-time in chemistry and natural science at Madras Col-
lege, St. Andrews University, between 1837 and 1840.
It was probably as a member of the St. Andrews Lit-
erary and Philosophical Society—founded by Brewster
in 1838—that Adamson fi rst became acquainted with
photography. As a confi dante of photography inventor
William Henry Fox Talbot, Brewster showed early ex-
amples of Talbot’s “photogenic drawings” at meetings
of the learned society in 1839. In May 1841, Talbot
disclosed the details of his recently-patented calotypeAdamson, John, “Portrait of woman seated in profi le.” From
the album “Photographs A.A. Bell.” 27 mounted and 9
unmounted prints.
Courtesy: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. © The J.
Paul Getty Museum.