816
In 1886 the main studio moved again, this time to
number 186 Orchard Road, where they stayed until
ca.1902. The fi rm also operated other studios at 1B
and 3A Orchard Road and also at Gresham House in
Battery Road. By the early 1900’s Lambert and Co.
had become the leading photographers in South East
Asia, with operators creating landscape and portrait
photographs in Borneo, Malaya, Sarawak, Sumatra,
Thailand, and elsewhere.
As well as several studios in Singapore, Lambert &
Co. had bases in other parts of South East Asia. Heinrich
Ernst, Charles Blum, H. Kunz (and others) operated
the Lambert studios at Deli and Medan in Sumatra.
Photographers H. Stafhell and Charles J. Kleingrothe
both worked as assistants to Lambert in Sumatra before
setting up on their own as Kleingrothe & Stafhell in
- There were also other branch offi ces situated in
Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.
It is not known which photographers made which
“Lambert” images, at least forty different managers, as-
sistants, and photographers were known to have worked
for Lambert & Co. at one time or another. Furthermore,
negatives and prints by other operators were regularly
bought and sold when studios closed or photographers
moved overseas.
Considering the number and differing experience
of staff employed, the work produced by the company
was generally of a high standard and always technically
competent, which was quite an achievement considering
that the location work was invariably undertaken in hot
and humid tropical conditions.
The pictures produced were largely aimed at the
European market and documented the rapidly changing
face of Singapore, which was constantly growing in size
and importance during the end of the 19th and early 20th
Centuries. The images produced in remoter areas, often
showing local inhabitants, are the most interesting and
exotic. The groups were carefully chosen and posed but
no attempt was made to document poverty-stricken na-
tives, commercial considerations being prerequisite.
Lambert’s operators recorded the growth in trade
throughout the area; coffee and rubber plantations,
tobacco farms, mines and shipping were all well docu-
mented and the resulting images helped promote South
East Asia as an attractive place in which to invest.
The images produced by the company were initially
produced as albumen prints and later gelatin-silver,
and were often gold toned, which helped maintain their
color. Later still, platinotype prints were offered. Titles
and reference numbers were added to the glass negatives
in a variety of styles and the later prints were sometimes
embossed with an oval company blindstamp.
By the end of the century, the company had started
producing postcards, over 250 views were on offer and
reportedly a quarter of a million were sold annually.
The market for photographs was changing, visitors
were choosing cheaper postcards over larger and ex-
pensive studies and Lambert & Co. started catering for
the emerging amateur photographic market, offering
cameras, fi lm, and processing facilities. By 1902 the
studio at 186 Orchard Road was closed and Gresham
House succumbed in 1910. By 1911 the operation was
in liquidation and the business was confi ned to premises
at 3A Orchard Road. A succession of managers were
brought in, the fi nal one being H. Nugent Buckeridge,
who later formed his own photographic business, which
lasted until the Second World War. By 1918 Lambert &
Co. were, briefl y, back at 186 Orchard Road, however
the business was in trouble and fi nally closed the same
year. Tastes were changing and with the world’s econ-
omy in decline, the market for high-quality, expensive
prints had ended.
Ian Charles SumnerBiography
G.R. Lambert, born Dresden, Germany (dates unknown).
Part of a large German business community in Singa-
pore. Opened photographic studio in Singapore April
1867 (which may have closed shortly after) returned to
Europe, returned to Singapore 1877, and created chain
of studios throughout South East Asia. Returned to
Europe ca.1886, leaving the operation in the hands of
managers. Maintained an interest in the business until
ca.1910. Firm ceases trading 1918.
See also: Advertising of Photographic Products;
Advertising Uses of Photography; and Koch, Robert.Further Reading
Falconer, John, A Vision of the Past. A History of Early Photogra-
phy in Singapore and Malaya. The Photographs of G.R. Lam-
bert & Co., 1880–1910. Times Editions, Singapore. 1987.
Collection: Cambridge University Library: Royal Commonwealth
Society Library, photograph collection of the British Associa-
tion of Malaysia and Singapore, BAM.LAMPREY, JOHN (active 1860s–1870s)
John Lamprey was Librarian of the Royal Geographical
Society and Assistant Secretary of the Ethnological So-
ciety of London. Very little is known of him, however his
photographic legacy is the system for the production of
anthropometric photographs which he published in the
Journal of the Ethnological Society in 1869. The system
was devised for use to both anthropologists and artists
for the “comparison of measurement of individuals by
some common standard.” In poses that refer back to
traditional visual modes of mapping the body which had
developed since the seventeenth century, the fi gure was
arranged in both full face and in profi le poses, with ad-