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INNES, COSMO NELSON (1798–1874)
English photographer and professorCosmo Nelson Innes was born at Deeside in Aberdeen-
shire, Scotland, on 9 September 1798, the youngest of
sixteen children. He attended the Royal High School,
Edinburgh and the Universities of Aberdeen, Glasgow
and Balliol College, Oxford. He was a member of the
Edinburgh Calotype Club (c 1841–1856) and learned
his photography in association with the other members
of the Club. Photographs by him are in each of the
extant albums of the Club: one in the Central Library
of Edinburgh and the other in the National Library of
Scotland. As well as the caloype process he is reported
as also using the waxed paper process. His main subject
matter was historic buildings. Lord Henry Cockburn,
the judge, records in his Circuit Journeys that he was
with Innes while he spent several hours “calotyping”
the ruins of Pluscarden Abbey, near Elgin. He was
one of the founders of the Photographic Society of
Scotland in 1856 and his photographs were included
in the Society’s exhibitions. He served on its Council
and as Vice-President and was still a member when
the Society was disbanded in 1873. He became an
advocate in 1822 and was Sheriff of Moray from 1840
until 1852. He had antiquarian interest outside the law,
refl ected in his choice of photographic subjects, and
had a great knowledge of ancient, Scottish documents
and was responsible for numerous publications. From
1846 until his death he was Professor of History at the
University of Edinburgh. He died at Killin, Stirling-
shire, on 31 July 1874 while on a tour of the Scottish
Highlands. In 1826 he married Isabella Rose and had
nine children.
Roddy SimpsonINSLEY, LAWSON (1851–1862)
Insley was an enigmatic daguerreian photographer
active chiefl y in the Pacifi c Region. He was probably the
photographer Insley active in New Zealand from 1851–- The diary of Rev. Richard Taylor states Insley
had traveled through India, America, New Holland, Van
Diemen’s Land and New Zealand. In 1851 he advertised
plain or coloured daguerreotypes at Lambton Quay, Wel-
lington. He is said to have taken portraits of Maori chiefs
in Auckland. By 1853 he was working at 408 George
St, Sydney, offering the only coloured daguerreotypes
in Australia. He travelled through Goulburn, Braidwood
and Queanbeyan during 1854 and 1855, marrying
Margaret Cameron in Goulburn on 26 July 1855. He
worked at a succession of Sydney addresses from 1856
and set up in 1859 in George St, Brisbane claiming to
be the oldest established photographer in the colonies
(this cannot be substantiated). He worked in Nicholas
St, Ipswich in 1860, declaring insolvency in December
but was back working in Brisbane from late 1861, then
he went to Maryborough and Rockhampton in 1862.
No trace is found of him after this although a son lived
in Forbes, NSW and two daughters lived in Sydney. No
defi nite connection with New York daguerreian Henry
Insley has been established.
Marcel Safier
Holdings: No original photographs located. An
albumin print copy of a daguerreotype by Insley of
Edward Hutchison and family in Queanbeyan is in the
hands of descendants.Further Reading
Davies, Alan & Peter Stanbury, The Mechanical Eye in Australia,
Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Kerr, Joan (ed.), The Dictionary of Australian Artists, Painters,
Sketchers, Photographers and Engravers to 1870, Melbourne:
Oxford University Press, 1992.
Main, William, Pioneer Photographers, in Art New Zealand, no.
53, Summer, 88–91.INSTANTANEOUS PHOTOGRAPHY
An instantaneous photograph is one in which the length
of exposure is short enough to freeze action. Instanta-
neity in photography is a relative term, the meaning of
which changed repeatedly throughout the nineteenth
century as a result of technological improvements. Ini-
tially, photographic emulsions were so insensitive that
exposure times were seconds and even minutes long.
At that speed, moving objects register only as a blur,
or fail to register at all. Instantaneous photographs are
ones in which the operator was able to accelerate ex-
posure enough so that movement is captured. Although
no precise defi nition of instantaneity exists, from the
1870s it came to mean pictures made more quickly than
the naked eye can see. The term was widely used in the
nineteenth century, but is now obsolete. It should not
be confused with ‘instantaneous’ dye-sublimation pro-
cesses (such as those manufactured by Polaroid), which
are distinguished by the rapid creation of prints.
Instantaneity in photography was considered highly
desirable in the nineteenth century. Many operators
boasted of their ability to make ‘instantaneous views’
in advertisements and on their studio’s printed mounts.
In addition, instantaneous photography was a common
category of competition in salon exhibitions. Neverthe-
less, early photographers were limited to only modest
achievements. In an 1841 report before the French
Academy of Science, the mathematician François Arago
listed trees blowing in the wind, fl owing water, the sea,
storms, sailing ships, clouds, and jostling crowds as
worthy instantaneous subjects. In the three decades that
followed, other writers catalogued faster moving sub-INNES, COSMO NELSON
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