15201520
YEARBOOK OF PHOTOGRAPHY
See also: British Journal of Photography; British
Journal Photographic Almanac (1859–); Bolas,
Thomas; Dallmeyer, John Henry & Thomas Ross;
Rejlander, Oscar Gustav; Williams, Thomas Richard;
Robinson, Henry Peach; and Photographic News
(1858–1908).
Further Reading
Koelzer, Walter, Photographic and Cinematographic Periodicals,
Dusseldorf, Der Foto Brell, 1992.
Gernsheim, Helmut, Incunabula of British Photographic Litera-
ture, London, Scolar Press, 1884.
YOKOYAMA MATSUSABURO
(1838–1884)
Japanese painter, photographer
The Japanese photographer Yokoyama Matsusaburo was
born in Etorofu Island (now disputed territory with Rus-
sia), but spent his childhood in the port city of Hakodate.
His lifelong love was painting, but when Commodore
Perry’s ships visited Hakodate in 1854, Yokoyama was
intrigued by the photography of Eliphalet Brown. This
interest was reinforced when, later that year, the Russian
photographer Aleksandr Mozhaiskii took daguerreo-
types of the streets of Hakodate. Thinking that mastery
of photography would help him to become a better artist,
he traveled to Yokohama and studied under Shimooka
Renjo. Returning to Hakodate his technique was further
refi ned by the Russian consul and amateur photographer,
Iosif Goshkevich. In 1868, Yokoyama opened his own
lavish studio in Tokyo. In 1871 he famously photo-
graphed the partially destroyed Edo Castle, and in 1873
Japanese art works destined for the Vienna Exposition.
In the same year he began to concentrate on teaching art
and photography students at his studio. In 1876 he gave
up his studio and taught photography and photolithog-
raphy at the Japan Military Academy until 1881. There
he experimented with printing techniques and developed
a form of photographic oil painting, shashin abura-e. In
1882 he contracted tuberculosis and spent the last two
years of his life painting (particularly photographic oil
painting) and immersing himself in a photolithography
company which he founded. [Examples of Yokoyama’s
work can be found in the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum
of Photography, Tokyo.]
Terry Bennett
YORK, FREDERICK (1823–1903)
Lantern slide manufacturer
York was born at Bridgwater, Somerset, England, in
- At 16 he was apprenticed to a Bristol pharmacist,
where he came into contact with the new art of photog-
raphy. He established and ran a photographic business
in South Africa, 1853–1861. Returning to England, in
1863 he set up a stereoview and lantern slide business at
87 (later at 67) Lancaster Road, Notting Hill, London.
The fi rm soon concentrated on photographic slides,
and son William joined the business in 1877. York &
Son’s slides, by the 1890s over 100,000 per year, were
manufactured in Bridgwater. Subjects included Travel,
Comic, Science, Education, and Life Models. Travel
scenes were produced with negatives ‘bought-in’ from
other photographers. Life Model sets were photographed
by the York company, whose only serious competition in
this genre was Bamforth & Co. Costumed ‘actors’ posed
in front of painted backdrops or, occasionally, exterior
scenes to create a series of tableaux. Many scenes were
photographed in a garden studio at Lancaster Road.
Themes included temperance, popular songs, services
of song, and ‘tearjerker’ stories. After Frederick York’s
death in 1903 William carried on, but the fi rm was dis-
solved in 1907. Newton & Co used the York name until
the late 1940s.
Stephen HerbertYOUNG, THOMAS (1773–1829)
English physician and natural philosopher
Thomas Young is chiefl y acknowledged for providing
the decisive arguments against Newton’s particle theory
of light, leading eventually to widespread acceptance
of the wave or undulatory theory. He also developed
theories of interference and three-color composition
of light which were important for the development of
colour photography. Born 13 June 1773 to a Quaker
family in Somerset, Young exhibited a prodigious
intellect, studying literature, ancient and modern lan-
guages, engineering, chemistry, optics, mathematics
and medicine. Having studied at both Edinburgh Uni-
versity and at the University of Göttingen, he became
widely read in a number of Continental philosophers,
including Leonhard Euler. Euler proposed that colors
were created by the frequency of vibration in the ether,
the longest wavelength corresponding to the red end of
the spectrum. Young adapted his own analogies of light
and sound to form a defence of a general wave theory of
light in 1801. In his publication of 1804, Experiments
and Calculations Relative to Physical Optics, Young
published proof of the extension of the spectrum into the
‘invisible’ region beyond the violet. Like many investi-
gators of light he employed the well-known sensitivity of
silver nitrate, casting the image from a solar microscope
on strips of paper soaked in the solution. Thomas Young
died 10 May 1829 in London.
Kelley Wilder