17th OCTOBER 2022: HYBRID TALK BY STEPHEN GILL:
FAMILY HISTORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY

This was a ‘trial run’ hybrid talk hosted by the Alde Valley Suffolk Family History Group, held at the Fromus Centre, Saxmundham Hub, and broadcast from Stephen’s office remotely in the northeast of England.  Audience members were invited to attend either in person or by linking in to the meeting online via Zoom.

Overall, I think all who attended it in either way found his talk entertaining and informative.  Stephen is a Professor of Photography, who also specialises in restoring and researching old photographs and family history.

He encourages researchers to look at photographs differently, for example trying to establish why the picture was taken originally.

Stephen began by explaining the nature of the earliest daguerreotype photographs.  Coated with silver and copper, they were expensive to produce, and also required the photographer to hold a licence from France.  They are nowadays very rare.

The next major development was the ambrotype, made with silver on glass.

Ferrotype pictures generally have a corner chopped off during the development process and are not in a frame.  They were made from iron and developed in a dark room during the period c 1850-1930.  This was long-lasting technology that reversed the image.

Late-Victorian frames were generally highly embellished, and hand decorated.

Cartes de Visite were Victorian visiting cards.  Prior to the 1870s, they had square-shaped corners, and often adverts about the photographer on the reverse.  This can all help with research to find out more about an image in your collection.  The aim is to Tell the Tales of your picture — and become a detective.

Stephen showed us an American image of a seated group of men, wearing bowler hats.  On close inspection, it was possible to see that they were all wearing rings on their little fingers, and one of the men was wearing a Colt-45 watch-winder on a small chain.  Although the owner of the photograph did not believe her male relative had ever been to the States, Stephen was able to establish that he was Butch Cassidy of The Wild Bunch.  It is a question of looking at the details in the pictures.

Angela Skelcher

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"Understanding and Making the Most of your old Photos" 
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Over the years, Stephen Gill has gained a vast amount of both practical and academic experience, plus qualifications including Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society and being awarded Accredited Senior in Imaging in the Creative Industries.  He was introduced to photography, when he was about 7, by a family who valued family photography, and from whom he inherited thousands of images, examples of which now appear on his website at www.photo-consult.co.uk.  He started photo-restoring in the days of working directly on the negative or print, and has years of experience managing a national digital restoration service.

His talk this afternoon, entitled "Understanding and Making the Most of your old Photos", encompasses a lot about dating and knowing what’s going on within your photos — with tips and ideas from his two books, one due out by October, which you can order via his website.

This will be both our first "hybrid" talk — so over Zoom AND physical — as well as our first at our new venue, Saxmundham's Fromus Centre.  Family History Federation speaker Stephen Gill will be talking to us over Zoom this afternoon.  Attendees over Zoom themselves should book in the normal way, please before 5:00pm on Friday, 14th October.  In-person attendees can just turn up (at £1.00 for Members, £3.00 for visitors, and with free tea/biscuits), but should be aware that this is the NEW Fromus Centre building, behind Saxmundham Library, and for which the full address is shown top right above — NOT in Seaman Avenue, which closed in November last year.

Images above: ©Stephen Gill / Photo-Consult