Interesting documentary about Ralph Snowball (dry plate...Newcastle, Australia...19th century).
- Thread starter mep
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Harry the K
Well-known
Thank you for the tip!
Fascinating photography and interesting stories! And the nice accents!
Fascinating photography and interesting stories! And the nice accents!
Freakscene
Obscure member
Weirdly, I found this thread while this was playing on my TV, having popped up in my YouTube feed.
brusby
Well-known
Great story with amazing clarity, detail and tonal range in almost all of his photos. It's particularly remarkable considering all of his images were made with very early, uncoated lenses and probably hand made glass plate negatives with ortho emulsions.
Thanks for sharing, I really enjoyed watching.
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Freakscene
Obscure member
He got his children to develop his glass plates. When queried just now, my son declined to support my re-engagement with film photography. 😂
Out to Lunch
Veteran
After watching the clip, that is what I wanted to comment.
brusby
Well-known
In an age where other minors were miners, I'd have been happy to develop a few negatives if I were one of his kids. Shows how much things have changed.
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trix4ever
Well-known
Back then the alternative was to go up a chimney...
Freakscene
Obscure member
Yes, although he is 11 my son already makes money by fixing electronic and computer hardware and doing small programming jobs. He also made a sarcastic comment in response to my request to work for me that he heard the boss at that job (developing film for me) was a “total a**hole” 😂
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Bolo Kukus
en vacances...
Easier to go down the chimney than up.
Especially with a wet plate camera kit. Those 8x10" shooters were hefty pieces of gear.
All this gives the term "soot and whitewash" an entirely new meaning.
(I will now, again, leave the room.)
(Added later) And BTW this documentary is by far one of the best productions I've seen on YouTube in a long time.
The soot/whitewash quip is entirely off. The photographs I've seen in this docco are truly beautiful images.
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Freakscene
Obscure member
Those negs were double plate (8.5x13 inch) or large cabinet/large tintype (13x10) size, not 8x10. Bigger!
Freakscene
Obscure member
Ralph Snowball
Date of Birth: 9th November 1848 | Occupation: Photographer | Place: [1] Leadgate, England | Place: [2] Clarence Road, Lambton, NSW | Read the full record details for Person: Ralph Snowball
Official R. Snowball splash page.
My search results from Living Histories
Check out the results of my search at Living Histories
61 pages of digitized Snowball work.
CLN Ralph Snowball Archive
Photographs of Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and the Hunter Valley, taken by Ralph Snowball in the late 19th, early 20th centuries. These are part of the Norm Barney Photographic Collection which was donated to the University of Newcastle by Mrs Daphne Barney. The images here were scanned from...
www.flickr.com
On FlickR.
ecowarrior
Established
The quality of some of those images is quite incredible. Amazing to think how long ago they were taken - all those people staring back at you, all gone now.
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