Luminous-Lint - for collectors and connoisseurs of fine photography
HOME  BACK>>> Subscriptions <<< | Testimonials | Login |

Getting around

 

HomeContentsVisual IndexesOnline ExhibitionsPhotographersGalleries and DealersThemes
AbstractEroticaFashionLandscapeNaturePhotojournalismPhotomontagePictorialismPortraitScientificStill lifeStreetWar
CalendarsTimelinesTechniquesLibrarySupport 
 

Stereographs Project

 
   Introduction 
   Photographers 
      A B C D E F G H  
      I J K L M N O P  
      Q R S T U V W X  
      Y Z  
   Locations 
   Themes 
   Backlists
 

HomeContents > People > Photographers > James Anderson

Names:
Born: Isaac Atkinson 
Pen: William Nugent Dunbar 
Dates:  1813 - 1877
Active:  Italy
 
  
British watercolorist and photographer who moved to Italy in the late 1830s and became one of the leading photographers of architectural sites, landscapes and photographic copies of paintings. He used the wet collodion process to take large glass plates that he printed as albumen prints as souvenirs for tourists. His son Domenico (1854-1938) continued the photographic business after his father's death in 1877. 
  
Stereographs project 
  
Business locations 
  
Roma (Rome), Italy 
  
 
  
T.K. Treadwell & William C. Darrah (Compiled by), Wolfgang, Sell (Updated by), 11/28/2003, Photographers of the World (Non-USA), (National Stereoscopic Association)
Credit: National Stereoscopic Association with corrections and additions by Alan Griffiths and others.
NOTE: You are probably here because you have a stereograph to identify. Please email good quality copies of the front and back to alan@luminous-lint.com so we can create reference collections for all.

Preparing biographies

Further research

 
 Premium content for those who want to understand photography
 
References are available for subscribers.There is so much more to explore when you subscribe. 
Subscriptions 
 
Thumbnail
James Anderson
Portrait of James Anderson 
n.d.
 
  
Family history 
  
If you are related to this photographer and interested in tracking down your extended family we can place a note here for you to help. It is free and you would be amazed who gets in touch. 
  
alan@luminous-lint.com
 
  
 
  

Exhibitions on this website

ThumbnailJames Anderson 
PhVTitle | Lightbox | Checklist
ThumbnailThe Roman Photographic School 
PhVTitle | Lightbox | Checklist
 
  

Visual indexes

 
 Premium content for those who want to understand photography
 
Visual indexes for this photographer are available for subscribers.There is so much more to explore when you subscribe. 
Subscriptions 
 
  

Supplemental information

 
James Anderson was born at Blencarn (Cumberland, GB) on March 11, 1813 with the name Isaac Atkinson.
 
He studied painting in Paris where he resides until 1837 specializing in watercolor views. In January 1838 he moved to Rome and with the pseudonym of William Nuget Dunbar he participated to annual exhibitions of the Society Amatory and the Belle's Arti students. He changed his name to James Anderson. He married a Roman girl, Maria de Mutis, and they had four children together.
 
The 1845 register of the frequenters of the Caffé Greco gives his signature with an address at Fuori Porta del Popolo N. 6, profession photographer. In the same register there is also the signature of Giacomo Caneva who also declared himself a photographer.
 
From this period he became a professional calotype photographer - we can not exclude that he also took Daguerreotypes but there is no proof of this at the present. Later he used albumen-on-glass but he generally preferred wet collodion. James Anderson was almost certainly a frequenter of the Photographic Circle of the Caffé Greco and some of his images show the same interpretation of other members of the group. During his first photographic period, when he used calotypes, Anderson doesn't seem to have ever signed his works and his blind-stamp only started to appear around 1855. The attribution to James Anderson of his early work is given by the blind-stamp of Jos Spithover who sold his prints or by the enumeration that sometimes appears on the photograph. Such numeration has to correspond to that of the first commercial catalogue.
 
In November 1855 James Anderson photographed the moon through the great telescope of Merz near the observatory of the College Romano
 
There survive some commercial catalogues of his works, the first was published in 1859 and listed his photographs created up to 1858. The catalogue is composed from 4 parts: Views of Rome and his outskirts, ancient Statues in Rome, ancient Statues in Roman Museums, modern Statues and the pictures. In total 451 subjects are listed and curiously expressed in two print sizes in yards, 0,25-0,35 and 0,31-0,47. Besides the images listed in his first catalogue he also took some beautiful images using a highlight wide-angle lens.
 
His views are generally well executed and very well printed. His works were on sale from the bookseller Joseph Spithover - which manufactured upon request albums of photographs selected by the customer. For many years he was in direct competition with Robert MacPherson who was also resident in Rome.
 
James Anderson participated to some international exhibitions, among which was the universal exhibition in Paris (1855), the exhibition of the Scottish Society of the Photo (1857) and the Universal Exhibition in London (1862).
 
From around 1870 he worked with his young son Domenico (1854-1938) and together they became increasingly commercial to compete with the growing number of professional photographers in Rome. He died February 27, 1877 and his photographic activity was continued by Domenico with notable success.
 
[Kindly contributed by Marco C. Antonetto, Jan 3, 2008]  
  
 
  
 
  
 
  
HOME  BACK>>> Subscriptions <<< | Testimonials | Login |
 Facebook LuminousLint 
 Twitter @LuminousLint