[James Linton and three unknown boys]

1845

Medium

Salted paper print from a paper negative

Dimensions

19.7 × 14.4 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-441221

> Some of Hill and Adamson's (David Octavius Hill [1802-70] and Robert Adamson [1821-48]) finest work features the men, women, and children of the small fishing village of Newhaven, Scotland, one mile north of Edinburgh. Consisting of approximately 130 images, this group of pictures may be seen as the first social documentary photographs ever made. > > There was a considerable amount of interest in Newhaven in the early nineteenth century. Set against a national backdrop of social upheaval, it appeared to represent the ideal of an independent community of great moral standing. While the heroism of the common person was a popular subject in art and literature, figuring, for example, in the paintings of Sir David Wilkie (1785-1841) and the poetry of Robert Burns (1759-96), the fact that Newhaven was easily accessible from Edinburgh also played an important part in Hill and Adamson's choice of subject. > > This portrait of the fisherman James Linton shows him leaning against a boat with three boys causally seated below the prow of the docked boat in casual positions. The children replace the basket and fishing net found in [another Hill and Adamson image of Linton](https://www.gett…