750
most means of improving “sensitiveness” had already
“been pushed to the limit,” but as latensifi cation, the
strategy remained popular in the 20th century. Inspired
by favourable comments, Blair later proposed a variant
whereby a controlled amount of light was admitted to
the plate before the camera exposure; that is “hypersen-
sitisation.” Blair reported increased “acceleration,” but
with prescience, he warned his results only applied to
“comparatively short exposures. With long exposures,
other changes take place.”
Ron Callender
See also: Becquerel, Edmond Alexandre; Claudet;
Archer, Frederick Scott; Dry Plate Negatives:
Gelatine; Dry Plate Negatives: Non-Gelatine,
Including Dry Collodion; and Blair, Thomas Henry.Further Reading
Clerc, L.P. (1954), Photography : Theory and Practice, (3rd edit.),
London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons L.
Eder, J.M. (1978), History of Photography, (Reprint of 4th edit.),
New York: Dover Publications, Inc.
Jones, B.E. (Ed.), (1974), Encyclopedia of Photography, (reprint
of 1911 edit.), New York: Arno Press.
Sowerby, A.L.M., (Ed.), (1956), Dictionary of Photography, (18th
edit.), London: Iliffe and Sons Ltd.IRELAND
Photography in Ireland developed quite rapidly due to
the fact that although Richard Beard did take steps to
patent the daguerreotype in Ireland (Irish Patent, No
229, April 1841), he seems never to have enforced his
rights. On September 20th 1839 the Belfast Newsletter
published a letter by the engraver Francis Stewart Beatty
(1806–1891) describing specimens of his successful at-
tempts to replicate Daguerre’s invention. Beatty’s letter
is the fi rst published account of photo graphy in Ireland
and he went on to work as an operator in Richard Beard’s
London Polytechnic Institution in 1841 before returning
to Belfast to establish a portrait studio in Castle St. in- Beatty continued to have a long association with
photography designing his own collodion wet plate fi eld
camera in 1858 and along with Dr. Thomas Alexander
taking out a patent for photo-lithography in 1860.
In 1840 instruction in the use of the daguerreotype
was offered by the Dublin Mechanical Institute and the
Natural Philosophy Committee of the Royal Dublin
Society purchased a camera for taking daguerreotypes
in the same year. A studio established in the Rotunda
on Dublin’s Sackville St. (O’Connell St.) in 1841 is
likely to have been opened by Beard in an attempt to
protect his licence purchased from Daguerre. In April
of 1842 this studio was taken over by Le Chevalier
Doussin Dubreuil and throughout the decade a number
of commercial studios appeared throughout Dublin
including one opened in 1845 by the self proclaimed
Professor of Natural Philosophy, Leone Gluckman.
Although there was less commercial activity in other
Irish cities during the 1840s a number of studios opened
in Belfast including one by a photographer with the
surname of Cherry and in Londonderry Robert McGee
operated a studio until 1843. In the late 1840s Edward
Harding opened a studio in Cork city and in Athlone
a self-proclaimed professor of the Daguerreotype, D.
Lewis Davis opened a studio in 1847. Although com-
mercial photography continued to expand during the
1850s with studios opened in Belfast, Dublin and Cork
it wasn’t until the 1860s that commercial photography
became fully established throughout Ireland. The lon-
gest surviving commercial company was established
in 1853 by the Lauder Brothers on Dublin’s Capel St.
In 1880 James Stack Lauder established the Lafayette
studios on Westmoreland St. in the city before opening
other Lafayette studios across the rest of Britain. The
Lafayette name still exists as photographic studio in
Dublin today.
Photography was also quickly taken up by Ireland’s
professional and landowning classes, many of whom
were introduced to photography through scientifi c and
educational connections with Britain. William Holland
Furlong from Dublin was introduced to photography at
the University of St. Andrews in 1840–41 as was Wil-
liam Despard Hemphill from Clonmel Co. Tipperary
who studied medicine there before returning to Ireland
in the mid 1840s. Hemphill went on to win a number of
prizes for his photographs at exhibitions in Britain and
France and published stereoscopic books in 1857 and
1860 of subjects in and around the town of Clonmel.
Louisa and Edward King Tension of Kilronan Castle Co.
Roscommon purchased a licence from William Henry
Fox Talbot and produced many calotypes of topographi-
cal subjects throughout the 1850s and Hugh Annesley, a
junior offi cer in the British Army from Castlewellan Co.
Down produced photographs of subjects in Ireland and
South Africa from 1851–1880. Other early Irish amateur
photographers travelled abroad to take photographs,
most notably the wealthy Cork landowner John Shaw
Smith who produced over three hundred calotypes dur-
ing a Grand Tour of Italy, Greece and Egypt in 1850–51.
A number of Irish soldiers established themselves as
commercial photographers in the colonies, including a
young private in the Royal Artillery from Co. Wicklow
John Burke who opened a studio with William Baker
in Peshawar, India in 1861.
Photography was popular amongst the residents of
Ireland’s big country houses throughout the nineteenth
century. Of particular note are Mary Parsons and her
husband William, 3rd Earl of Rosse, Birr, Co. Offaly.
Lord Rosse, President of the Royal Society was closely
associated with William Lake Price who together per-INTENSIFYING
Hannavy_RT72353_C009.indd 750 7/5/2007 11:33:36 AM