537
obscura images, which he named “Photographia.” He
developed a technique of visual representation on paper
sheets that tiny holes bored into it, creating little light
refl ections. The originals were then placed in front of
an opening and exposed to the light of the sun, inside
an obscure part. Then, the image acquired was fi xed as
the external images projected in this camera. In 1833,
they settled on silver nitrate on paper, in a process very
similar to that developed by Niépce and Daguerre.
Unfortunately, partly because he never published the
invention adequately, partly because he was an obscure
inventor living in a remote and underveloped province,
Hércules Florence was never recognized internation-
ally as one of the inventors of photography. He wrote
a letter concerning “photographie” in his newspaper at
the date of January 15, 1833. Five days later, he made
a report of his fi rst experiment with the obscure room
but, unfortunately, none of the further images were
successful. In 1842, he launched “O Paulista” the fi rst
newspaper in the State of São Paulo—and in 1858,
“Aurora Campineira,” the fi rst newspaper of Campinas.
His multiple talents drew the attention of the emperor
Dom Pedro II (1825–1891) who visited him in 1876.
Florence also wrote several books about his expeditions
which were published in 1875.
Johan Swinnen
Further Reading
Heilbrun, Françoise (ed.), L’invention d’un regard (1839-1918),
Musée d’Orsay/Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, 1989.
Hércules Florence, Viagem Fluvial do Tietê ao Amazonas. Bra-
zilian edition with translation by Francisco Álvares Machado
and Vasconcellos Florence, Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis
Chateaubriand, 1977.
Lemagny, Jean-Claude; Sayag, Alain, L’invention d’un art, Centre
Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1989.
Newhall, Beaumont, Die vâter der fotografi e, im Heering-Verlag
in Seebruck am Chiemsee, 1978.
Vieillard, J., A Zoophonia de Hercule Florence. Editora da Uni-
versidade de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, 1993.
Witkin, Lee D. (ed.), The photograph collector’s guide, Secker
& Warburg, London, 1979.
FLOYD, WILLIAM PRYOR
(active 1860s–1870s)
British photographer
Little biographical information, beyond his professional
activities, is available for one of the most successful
Hong Kong based photographers of the mid-1860s–70s.
Floyd fi rst appears in China in 1865, in the employment
of the Shanghai photographers Shannon and Co, but by
the following year he had transferred to Hong Kong to
work as a photographer for Silveira and Co, whose busi-
ness he acquired shortly afterwards. By 1868, trading
under the business titles of both W. P. Floyd and Co. and
the Victoria Photographic Gallery, he was advertising
views of both Hong Kong and mainland China, but the
bulk of his work was fi rmly based in the British colony.
Contemporary reviews compare his work with John
Thomson (some of whose negatives he appears to have
acquired and marketed on the latter’s departure in 1872)
and while the range of his output was certainly more
limited, he seems to have enjoyed similar commercial
success. Portrait and genre studies apparently formed
only a minor part of his output, which was predominantly
focussed on satisfying (in the words of the China Mail
of 8 August 1868), a ‘common desire to obtain memori-
als of a locality in which some of the best years of our
life have been passed.’ A technically competent, if not
unduly inspired photographer, Floyd’s surviving work
nevertheless provides an extremely valuable historical
record of the colonial topography of Hong Kong, with a
particular emphasis on the documentation of individual
public and commercial buildings, clubs and European
domestic architecture. Floyd left Hong Kong in 1874, his
business and premises taken over by Emil Rusfeldt.
John FalconerFLY, CAMILLUS SIDNEY (c. 1849–1901)
On October 26th 1881, a gunfi ght took place across the
street from the studio of Camillus Samuel Fly in Tomb-
stone Arizona. Although now known as the “Gunfi ght at
the OK Corral,” the gunfi ght between the Clantons and
Wyatt Earp took place on some open land rather than in
the corral itself. According to some eyewitness accounts,
the photographer himself disarmed the wounded Billy
Clanton after the gunfi ght was over. Fly had previously
photographed Ike Clanton, Earp and Doc Holliday in
his studio. His restored studio, displaying many of his
images, is part of the OK Corral historical site.
Born in Missouri c. 1849, Fly moved to California as
a child, and to Tombstone with his wife Mary immedi-
ately after their wedding in 1879, where they operated a
photographic studio and a twelve room boarding house
at 312 Freemont Street.
Fly photographed a meeting between General Crook
and Geronimo and his Apache followers early in 1886,
taking individual portraits of Geronimo, and groups of
Indians and U.S. Cavalry. Some of his pictures were
used as the basis of illustrations in Harper’s Weekly in
April 1886 (No. 1531).
The Tombstone Epitaph, in 1887 noted that “Mr.
C.S. Fly, the well known photographer, leaves today for
Florence, Phoenix and other points in the Territory” and
that “during his absence, Mrs. Fly also an accomplished
photographic artist, will conduct the gallery in this city
as usual.” Travelling in Mexico that year Camillus pho-
tographed the devastation after a major earthquake.
John Hannavy