The artful use of light

This year all Scotland celebrated the bicentenary of the birth of David Octavius Hill (1802–70). Cultural institutions in Edinburgh, Linlithgow, Glasgow, Perth and St Andrews organized exhibitions of Hill's paintings and of the calotypes Hill produced in association with Robert Adamson (1821–48). Every school in Scotland received a resource pack containing reproductions of calotypes and information concerning these two men. In addition, The Sun Worshippers, a BBC Scotland drama-documentary exploring this remarkable collaboration, appeared on the country's television screens in May 2002.1 Other activities, including a public demonstration of the calotype process and the debut of a new play, Memory Hill, by Donald Smith, rounded out the festival calendar.2 When considering this impressive series of events, the words of Hugh Miller (1802–56) come to mind — ‘and very wonderful things they certainly are’ — although he was describing calotypes.3 One of these ‘wonderful things’, an international scholarly meeting on the achievements of D. O. Hill and Robert Adamson, is of particular interest to readers of the History of Photography

Art · Art history · Drama · Exhibition · Miller · Painting · Performance art · Photography · Visual arts · Historical Architecture and Urbanism · Historical Art and Culture Studies · History · Scottish History and National Identity