Q&A Session (rewritten for clarity and natural flow)
Moderator:
Thank you so much — that was fascinating, and what wonderful photographs.
Right, we've got about five minutes for questions. Does anyone have one? If you could just wait for the microphone to reach you, please.
Audience Member 1:
I was just wondering — is there an archive of these photos anywhere? Are they online, or where can you actually see them?
Speaker:
That's a really good question. Well, most of the Dorrett & Martin photographs I showed tonight actually belong to the University of Texas in Austin — which seems a bit mad, doesn't it? But here's what happened: a photography historian called Helmut Gernsheim somehow got hold of the negatives years ago, and he later donated them to the university in Texas.
The V&A here in London does also have a collection of Paul Martin's photographs. They're not usually on display, but you can find some through their website if you look. Martin took hundreds and hundreds of images — not just of Wandsworth Common, but also in France and Switzerland — and they're all of consistently high quality.
There's also a rather nice book — Victorian Snapshots — that Martin himself wrote a short biography for. It's long out of print, but it was reissued briefly in the 1970s. And there's a big academic volume as well, by Roy Flukinger, Larry Schaaf, and Helmut Gernsheim, with beautifully reproduced prints. Those focus more on his art photography, though — the Wandsworth Common "jobbing photographer" period isn't really covered there.
Audience Member 2:
What brought the Martin family to London — and specifically to Battersea?
Speaker:
Ah, yes, very good question. The Martins were originally from France, and they left after the Franco-Prussian War — around 1870–71 — when Paris was besieged and then torn apart by revolution. It must have been a traumatic time, and London probably seemed a safer, more stable place to start again.
Why Battersea specifically? Well, at that time the area was growing fast — industrialising, full of opportunity, and relatively cheap to live in. There was also a small French-speaking community around East Hill, with churches that held services in French. It's quite possible they knew someone already here who encouraged them to come.
Audience Member 3:
There were a few other French exiles around then, weren't there?
Speaker:
Yes, indeed — quite a few important ones. Monet lived in Chelsea for a while, fascinated by the Thames fogs. Pissarro lived near Crystal Palace, and Zola ended up in South Norwood after fleeing France. He was a keen photographer himself — there's even a book of his photographs of south London. So the Martins were part of that broader wave of creative exiles, in a sense.
Audience Member 4:
I noticed one of your photos showed a family group — and they were smiling, which is unusual for Victorian portraits. Could that have been an experiment? Maybe they were testing shorter exposure times?
Speaker:
That's a brilliant observation — yes, I think you're right. Most Victorian portraits look stiff because the exposures were so long — people had to hold still for several seconds. But Dorrett and Martin were experimenting with new lighting and faster plates.
In fact, when they met, Dorrett was known for giving public demonstrations of acetylene gas lighting — very bright, quite dangerous, but it allowed for much shorter exposures. So it's entirely possible that this "smiling family" photo was a bit of an experiment — testing faster shutter speeds and seeing how much movement they could capture.
Audience Member 5:
Who would their customers have been at that time? Would you have needed to be quite wealthy to have your portrait taken?
Speaker:
Yes and no. Earlier on — say in the 1870s — it was still fairly expensive. There were people on the common who'd take your photograph for a shilling, which was quite a lot then, but not completely out of reach.
By the time Dorrett and Martin were working, it was becoming more accessible. They did formal studio portraits, of course, but also postcards, sports teams, charity events, and family scenes. They even had a fully equipped darkroom — quite a luxury — which other photographers would have been envious of.
I think Dorrett was more the darkroom technician, while Martin was the camera man — the experimenter, the artist, really. He even invented a rather clever enlarger, which they later sold.
Audience Member 6:
What sizes or formats did they use for their photographs?
Speaker:
They used several. The main ones were whole plate — about eight by six inches — half plate, and quarter plate. Paul Martin's camera was a half-plate model. Now, a quarter plate sounds small, but it was still much bigger than a 35mm negative — maybe four times the size.
The challenge was printing. Without an enlarger, your print could only ever be the same size as your negative. Enlargers were rare then, which is why Martin's invention was such a big deal. There's even a story — possibly true — that one day he was walking down the street, saw one of his photos blown up to a huge size in a shop window, and there was such a crowd around it that the police had to come and move people along!
Moderator:
[Laughs] That's marvellous. Unfortunately, we'll have to end there — but thank you both so much for such a fascinating talk and those wonderful photographs.
And thank you, John, for filming the event. The video will go up on the website in a few days, so do have a look if you'd like to see the images again in more detail.
Am I right in thinking the Patrick Loobey Collection might also hold some Dorrett & Martin postcards that can be viewed in the Heritage Library?
Speaker:
Yes, that's right — a number of them are there too. Definitely worth a visit if you're interested.
Moderator:
Excellent.
So, please put your hands together once again — thank you!
[Applause]
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