ALBERT SANDS SOUTHWORTH—————————————————
ALBERT SANDS SOUTHWORTH
Genre: Self-portrait
Date: 1948
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Format: Daguerréotype
“With Josiah Johnson Hawes, Albert Sands Soutworth (1811-94) ran one of the most successful early photography studios in the United States – the Boston-based Soutworth & Hawes.
They photographed he city’s rich and famous, as well as the burgeoning middle classes, maintaining in their advertisements that ‘[A] likeness fir an intimate acquaintance or one’s own family should be marked by that amiability and cheerfulness, so appropriate to the social circle and the home fireside. Those fir the public, if official dignitaries and celebrated characters admit of more firmness, sternness and soberness.’
Hawes and Southworth worked almost entirely in daguerreotypes, using the 21.6 x 15.2-cm (8.5 x 6.5-inch) whole-plate format that gave their images fine detail and a brilliant, mirrorlike surface. In The Photographic and Fine Art Journal of August 1855, critic Marcus A. Root remarked that ‘[T]heir style, indeed, is peculiar to themselves; presenting beautiful effects of light and shade, and giving depth and roundness together wit a wonderful softness or mellowness.’
The partnership’s studio was situated on the top floor of a Boston building, with vast skylight to allow in the huge amounts of light necessary for the relatively‘short’ xposures of portraits of their subjects.
The striking image here hints at nudity, a rare feature of early photography. Although probably a self-portrait by Southworth, Hawes may have made the actual exposure, as he developed this technique of vignetting the corners of the image to highlight the central subject.” (PL)
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