Photography And Fish - A Slow Market

From Things: A Spectrum of Photography, 1850-2001 (2004) London: Jonathan Cape

R T Crawshay, 1868, A Slow Market, Albumen-silver print from wet collodion negative

'Robert Crawshay was the fourth 'Iron King' of the Cyfarthfa Iron Works, Merthyr Tydfil.  In 1867 he became a member of the (Royal) Photographic Society.  A Slow Market was probably taken during spring 1868. It is beautifully made and carefully observed; the tear in the tablecloth echoes the open mouth of the nearest salmon. The photograph combines the popular genre motif of fisherfolk with a tradition of still life, and a Victorian predilection for dressing up. Beneath the shawls and skirts is Crawshay's daughter, Rose Harriette. She wrote in her diary (23 March 1868): "Papa came in with the ugliest, dirtiest, nastiest old straw bonnet that ever existed and a cap (thank goodness it was clean) for me to be photographed in as a fish woman which lasted till lunch time".'

Jane Fletcher, National Museum of Photography, Film & Television