William Notman was born in Paisley, Scotland in 1826, the same year in which photography was born in France. He moved to Montreal in 1856. An amateur photographer, he quickly established a flourishing professional photography studio on Bleury Street.
The Musée McCord has a Flickr account with some fantastic images in the public domain, made by William Notman, including 19th century vintage shots of children posing with their toys. Toys often replicated the adult world, teaching children the values and duties they would have to assume in their future roles as mothers and fathers. Numerous children, generally from well-to-do families, were photographed in William Notman's studio.
1 comment(s):
Fascinating. Early portrait photography like this was not unlike painted portraits. Those posing for portraits (or in this case their parents) chose poses, props and settings to try to send a message about themselves or their offspring.
Even when portraiture became less formal people would actually spend a great deal of time setting up formal portraits to look informal to try to project an image.
Even today people try it, even to the extent of using photoediting software. Of course it's much harder today to maintain a manufactured public image because of the profusion of cameras and particularly their portability and ease of use.
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