New book throws spotlight on region’s photography pioneers

A new book, The Early Photographers of Perthshire, will be launched this month.

Shining a light on the area’s place in Scottish photographic history, it has been written by two Perth locals, professional photographer Roben Antoniewicz and historian Dr Paul S Philippou.

This is the pair’s second collaboration, the first was the publication in 2012 of Perth: Street by Street.

It is also a celebration and archive of the contributions made by Perthshire’s early photographers including Jessie Mann and Lady Kinnaird, “rivals for the accolade of Scotland’s first female photographer”, and James Moyes “who seems to have combined his commercial photography business with his job as a gravedigger”.

Roben Antoniewicz’s links to Perthshire photography began in the mid-19th Century. In the 1850s, his great, great, great-grandfather, David Wood, of Wood & Son, printers and booksellers, sold photographic papers in his shop at 52 High Street.

Later, his great-grandfather, also called David Wood, began commissioning local photographers for the firm’s Woodall Series of Perthshire view postcards.

Roben’s personal photography was recognised in 2003 when he won the annual Schweppes Photographic Portrait Prize run by the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Roben has enjoyed discovering photographs made by Perthshire photographers, many of which appear in this book published by Tippermuir.

Dr Paul S Philippou is an honorary research fellow at Dundee University.