THE PHOTOGRAPHERS HUB : THOMAS ANNAN

Thomas Annan was born in 1829 in Dairsie, Fife. In 1845 at the age of 16 he was approved by the local Fife Herald newspaper, to be an apprentice as a lithographic writer and engraver. During this period he distinguished himself successfully by finishing his education in the fourth year, instead of the seven year planned apprenticeship.

From there Annan moved to Glasgow where he got to work in a lithographic workshop under the ownership of Joseph Swan. In between the 1850s and 1860s photography took a step in the commercial value and as a result the lithographic trade declined, in conjunction to this Annan took up a partnership business in 1855 as a ‘collodion calotypist’. Two years later he managed to have his own company, and in 1860 he bought a large format camera to be able in taking photographs, which emitted his crave for light, feelings of emotions and majesty in landscape. He was well renowned as a keen expert in reproducing works of art; this enabled him to receive a high profile work task by the Glasgow Art Union in 1862.

As in 1866 an act was accepted by the government, to put down all the deteriorated slums in the City Parish, however when the actual demolishing was about to take place in 1868, a need to keep a documentation via photography of the characteristics in the old town, the chosen photographer for this task was Thomas Annan.

Thomas Annan was quoted saying:

"I have seen human degradation in some of its worst phases, both in England and abroad, but I can advisedly say, that I did not believe, until I visited the wynds of Glasgow, that so large an amount of filth, crime, misery, and disease existed in one spot in any civilised country. The wynds consist of long lanes, so narrow that a cart could with difficulty pass along them; out of these open the 'closes', which are courts about fifteen or twenty feet square, round which the houses, mostly three or four storeys high, are built; the centre of the court is the dunghill, which probably is the most lucrative part of the estate to the laird in most instances, and which it would consequently be esteemed an invasion of the rights of property to remove. In the lower lodging houses, ten, twelve, or sometimes twenty persons, of both sexes and all ages, sleep promiscuously on the floor in different degrees of nakedness. These places are generally, as regards dirt, damp, and decay, such as no person of common humanity would stable his horse in." (University of Glasgow, 2006. Thomas Annan.)