Brighton Photographer William Almond

Sunday 24 August 2014

If, like me, you are a collector, then you know that it is like a kind of terminal illness for which there is not much hope of ever finding a cure. I am always collecting something. My fascination with old photographs was in danger of branching off in all directions, so as a way of limiting myself, I have decided to try to collect at least one photograph from each of the early Brighton photographers.

Fortunately there is a wonderful Directory available online (click here) showing all the known photographic studios in Brighton and Hove between 1841 and 1910. I am working from that list, but don't ever expect to be complete.

One photographic studio that I would really like to find an example from has the same surname as me, but I don't know if there is a family connection. G. & K. Ransom was working from 19 New England Street in 1891. (See also, the comment from David Simkin below.)

William Thomas Almond

45 St James Street, Brighton

1904-1910+

Unfortunately, as I have decided to work through my collection in alphabetical order, my first photograph has a problem. The address given in the Directory of Brighton Photographers matches my photograph, but the photographers name doesn't.

The Sussex Photo History website states that William Almond was at St James Street until 1930. Perhaps the date range given for Mr Almond - 1910+ - indicates that my photographer was working as an assistant in 1912 (the date written on the photograph). The rubber stamped details on the back of the photograph are not clear, so it is difficult to read the photographer's name.

This photograph is also unusual because it is the only postcard size photograph in the Brighton collection. All the others are either "CDV" or "Cabinet" photographs. Perhaps this is due to the later date? It is one of my favourite photographs.

From "Time and Again" by Jack Finney (1970):

Because I've always felt a wonder at old photographs not easy to explain. Maybe I don't need to explain; maybe you'll recognize what I mean. I mean the sense of wonder, staring at the strange clothes and vanished backgrounds, at knowing that what you're seeing was once real. That light really did reflect into a lens from these lost faces and objects. That these people were really there once, smiling into a camera. You could have walked into the scene then, touched those people, and spoken to them. You could actually have gone into that strange outmoded old building and seen what now you never can – what was just inside the door.

The wonder is even stronger with old stereoscopic views – the almost, but not quite, identical pair of photographs mounted side by side on stiff cardboard, that, looked at through the viewer, give a miraculous effect of depth. It's never been a mystery to me why the whole country was once crazy about them. Because the good ones, the really clear sharp photographs, are so real: Insert a view, slide it into focus, and the old scene leaps out at you, astonishingly three-dimensional. And then, for me, the awe becomes intense. Because now you really see the arrested moment, so actual it seems that if you watch intently, the life caught here must continue. That the raised horse's hoof so startlingly distinct in the foreground must move down to the solidness of pavement below it again; those carriage wheels revolve, the girl walk closer, the man move on out of the scene. The feeling that the tantalizing reality of the vanished moment might somehow be seized – that if you watch long enough you might detect that first nearly imperceptible movement – is the answer to the question Kate has asked me more than once: "How can you sit there so long – you hardly move! – staring endlessly at the very same picture?"

1 comment

Unknown7 December 2016 at 03:15
Hi David,
My name is David Simkin and I am the author of the "Sussex PhotoHistory" website. Thanks for mentioning my website and for providing links to relevant webpages. You state that you are interested in "G. K. Ransom" of 19 New England Street, Brighton". I have recently researched the listing of "G. K. Ransom" and discovered it was a typographical error. It should have read "G. & K. Ransom" which corresponds to George and Kate Ransom. It appears that a photographer named Harry King (Kate Ransom's brother) operated from 19 New England Street and initially advertised under the name of his brother-in-law (George)and Mrs Kate Ransom (i.e. "G. & K. Ransom". You can read further details on my Sussex PhotoHistory website. Regards, David Simkin.

Time travel with old photographs

Brighton Photographer William Almond

William Thomas Almond

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Time travel with old photographs

Brighton Photographer William Almond

William Thomas Almond

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From "Time and Again" by Jack Finney (1970):

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