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The Man and the Studio
Stanley G. Triggs
The Operating room
By the mid-sixties, Notman had not one but three "operating rooms" (or studios in modern parlance). The main studio, used for "ordinary portraits" and groups, was in a large annex attached to the premises behind. Its size, fifty by twenty and a half feet, meant it could accommodate groups of fifty people with ease, yet single portraits could be made to look as though taken in a private study or parlour. The fourteen-foot high ceiling held a large flat skylight for general illumination, while the north wall contained a sidelight ten and a half feet high by fifteen feet wide which provided the strong modelling light required to give the subject form and depth.1 In this room the camera was generally facing west, with the north light falling from the photographer's right.
The room was also a storehouse for the wide variety of portable backgrounds, furniture and props used by Notman. A painted background showing a cosy library might be thought best for one customer, a seat by a parlour window for the next. Grecian or Roman pillars could be quickly brought in on command. Outdoor settings could as easily be simulated by rolling in the appropriate background and changing the props or furniture. An outdoor patio, forest dell, rustic stream or mountain landscape could all be had for the asking at a minute's notice. No two photographs were alike, and with Mr. Notman's artistic eye and deft adjustment of the furnishings and drapery, each patron was assured of a fresh and original scene and, most important, "a good likeness".
When a photographer uses daylight coming through a skylight and window for illumination, the direction of the light source obviously cannot be changed. But by turning the sitter and moving the camera the orientation of the light can be changed at will. It can be made to fall on either side of the subject, on the back or full face. Such a large room allowed the photographer to face the sitter in any direction and still have enough space to set up the camera and the background.
The other two studios were on the second floor of the main building, each with a skylight on opposite ends of the same north wall. The earlier of the two, built when Notman first moved into the new location, was not as large as the annex but roomy enough, measuring eighteen and a half by thirty-four and a half feet.2 The skylight consisted of a sidelight, nine feet wide by ten and a half feet high in the north wall and a sloping top light. The camera in this room faced to the east, with the north light falling on the photographer's left. Here Notman did a lot of his experimental work. He would have stones brought in, trees planted, wooden fences set up and dirt or sand scattered around. In season he would create a winter scene of tobogganers on Mount Royal or snowshoers in the Laurentian Mountains. Sheep's fleece was used to simulate deep snow and rough salt for snow on coats and trees. A sheet of polished zinc magically became a skating rink or a setting for a group of curlers.
It was in this same studio that Notman created his well-known series Cariboo Hunting, Moose Hunting, and Trapping, prize-winning items in every international exhibition in which they were entered. Between 1867 and 1869 the third studio was built at the other side of the building, with the light falling from the right. Here a new winter scene was built, as the second studio was needed for regular portraiture because of the rapid increase in the number of sitters. In 1861 (the first year for which records are available) Notman took 3,000 photographs, in 1867, 5,500 and a total of 14,000 in the year 1873.
1Philadelphia Photographer, vol. 3, no. 32, August 1866.
2Philadelphia Photographer, vol. 3, no. 29, May 1866.