Academic recreates photos by 19th Century pioneer

The researcher was granted access to Stonehenge before visitor times to capture the images

A researcher has used traditional equipment and techniques to recreate images by a pioneering Victorian photographer.

Last year it emerged Ernest Howard Farmer was the photographer behind A Wiltshire Thatcher, which was used on the cover of the Led Zeppelin IV album.

Now, Frank Menger, a historic photography expert from UWE Bristol, has replicated three images taken by Farmer taken in the 1890s at Stonehenge.

Mr Menger's recreations will sit alongside Farmer's in a new exhibition at Wiltshire Museum in Devizes.

“The main challenge of using this equipment was it was so old," said Mr Menger

Mr Menger, a research fellow at the centre for print research, used dark room developing techniques and heavy, bulky equipment, including a Victorian-era camera.

The camera uses postcard-sized glass plates coated with silver gelatine emulsion, which is left to dry before capturing images.

"The holders for the glass plates were vintage so there was a danger of light leakage," said Mr Menger.

"One even fell apart while I was taking the images and I had to rescue it.

"It was amazing to see they came out and I was pleased with the results.

"They are similar to the originals; the glass plates have a fine grain which give detailed, sharp images, and that element was there on my photographs.

Farmer's photo of a Wiltshire thatcher was used by Led Zeppelin in 1971

Mr Menger said the camera would have been "quite a feat" for Farmer.

"He would have carried around 12 glass plates, which would have been heavy, and they would have needed to be kept in lightproof containers."

The photographer took two landscape images of Stonehenge, alongside an image of a man in a bowler hat posing in front of the stones, in precisely the same locations used for the originals.

All three of the images were taken at Stonehenge

Mr Menger, who has used analogue photography all his life, said: “Photographers in those days needed to have some chemistry knowledge in order to coat the glass plates in a dark room.

"They also needed to print their photographs at home, as there wouldn’t have been a lab service available at that time.

"Farmer was the son of a chemist; with a burgeoning photographic movement happening at that time, it seems he branched out to use his knowledge and expertise in chemistry to offer photographic services.

“When looking at his images taken in the West Country, I was struck how accomplished they were. The quality is amazing, and this was during the infancy of photography.”

The exhibition, called A Wiltshire Thatcher – a Photographic Journey through Victorian Wessex, celebrates the work of Farmer and runs until 1 September