SWISS CHOCOLATE AND SCOTTISH STONE.
A brief examination of three random images from SGS photographic negative collection.
By Alastair Goodrum.
In order to illustrate the diversity of images in the Society’s photographic collection, the following discourse uses two random images from the negative section and one image from the positive lantern-slide section.
A poster advertising the Paris World Fair 1900.
A substantial part of the SGS photographic negative collection can be found inside a nondescript wooden box located beneath one of the display cases in the Maples gallery. Among the gems inside are a couple of cardboard boxes that contain what I regard as the ‘Alpine Journey’ part of this collection. It is interesting for many reasons, but it differs from the other negatives in that wooden box because these(somewhat ‘curly’) negatives are very early examples of the ‘modern’ plastic, compact camera variety rather than glass plates. The images are of varying quality but offer the amateur sleuth, armed with magnifying glass, MS Photoshop and the Internet, plenty of scope. After taking a while to sort out the rather haphazard storage of these negatives, a pattern emerged and it became apparent that the span of the ‘Alpine’ boxescovers an expedition (by persons unknown – but probably an SGS member or members) to the town of Argentiere, set in the valley and mountains of the Chamonix district; via Paris and Lac Leman (aka Lake Geneva). Several locations have been identified but the date of this journey was elusive. However, the sequence of images seemed to tie up with viewsthat included the Eiffel Tower.
SGS image of Eiffel Tower, Paris; buildings of the 1900 expo and the Ferris Wheel in background.
Closer examination of the SGS shots of the Tower showed evidence of buildings and a Ferris Wheel, named the Grande Roue, positioned as for the Paris Exposition/World Fair,which was held from 14 April to 12 November 1900. The enormous Ferris wheel (about ¾ the size of the London Eye)can be seen on the lower right edge of the photo. It was 360 feet high and could carry up to 1,600 passengers in 40 cars at any one time. It did not feature in any of the Paris Expositions of earlier decades. The other SGS images of Paris are, frankly, relatively underwhelming; those of Lake Geneva are more interesting because local people feature much more prominently; while those images of the Chamonix/Argentierevalley area offer an excellent chance to see how the mountains and glaciers have changed and how the villages were opening up to tourism.