The Personal Art of David Octavius Hill (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in Britis)

"David Octavius Hill (1802-70), was a pioneer photographer, a painter and lithographer. In 1843, he entered into partnership with the young photographer Robert Adamson, and in the next four years they produced an extraordinary body of work, the originality and inventiveness of which has fascinated photographers and historians for a hundred and fifty years.". "The invention of photography signalled the origins of modernity, but was connected to the concerns of its own time, many of which have since become mysterious or confused. This book is designed to present considerable new research, firstly analysing the photographic partnership and offering an understanding of its remarkable success; secondly, explaining the purpose and intelligence of this familiar work in the context of Hill's life of sixty-eight years. He lived at a time when Scotland was driven by an astonishing energy and urge for exploration and improvement, coupled with a newly confident nationalism, based on religious dynamism and literary fame. Hill himself, a kind and empathetic man, was an active force in his own world: an enthusiast driven by a strong social impulse as well as a desire to improve the arts, which made his actions and thinking generous and democratic.". "Displaying a gallery of Hill and Adamson's sensitive and atmospheric photographs, this book is a tribute to their partnership and their significant contribution to the history of photography."--BOOK JACKET.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.