John McCosh

Edit links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

John McCosh or John MacCosh or James McCosh (

Second Burmese War (1852–1853),[4][5] count as sufficient grounds, some historians maintain, to recognise him as the first war photographer known by name.[4][6]
McCosh wrote a number of books on medicine and photography, as well as books of poetry.

Roddy Simpson has written of McCosh's photographs that "Given the circumstances, these images are a considerable achievement and, regardless of artistic merit, are historically very important".[7] Taylor and Schaaf have written that "McCosh fashioned compositions that were exceptional for the period"[3]: 123  and that unlike his contemporaries "in his hands, photography was not merely a pastime but became the means of recording history."[3]: 123 

Life and work

Memorial to Dr John McCosh, Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh

In 1831, aged 26,[2] McCosh became an assistant surgeon in the Indian Medical Service (Bengal), in the army of the East India Company, and served with its Bengal Army.[4] He saw active service on the north-east frontier of India against the Kol people in 1832 to 1833.[8]

On 11 October 1833, on

Madras to Hobart in Tasmania, Australia,[n 1] was wrecked off the desolate and remote Amsterdam Island in the southern Indian Ocean.[8] Of the 97 people aboard, 21 survived, with McCosh the only surviving passenger. They were rescued on 26 October by a US sealing schooner, General Jackson, and taken to Mauritius.[9]
He wrote a book describing his experience, Narrative of the Wreck of the Lady Munro, on the Desolate Island of Amsterdam, October, 1833 (1835).

In 1840

Edinburgh University.[2]

In 1843 McCosh returned to India as assistant surgeon with the 31st Bengal Native Infantry, taking part in the Gwalior campaign and its battle of Maharajpur on 29 December 1843.[1] He was awarded the Gwalior Star for Maharajpoor.[8] McCosh began producing photographs either in 1843[7][10] or 1848.[2][n 2]

He was sent to Almora, in the foothills of the Himalayas, and to Jalandhar in the Punjab.[3]

In 1848 in the Punjab, he took part in the

camera.[2]
: 911–912 

In

Second Burmese War (1852–1853), where he made portraits of colleagues, captured guns, temple architecture in Yangon and of Burmese people, using a larger and heavier camera and producing larger prints.[4] According to Taylor and Schaaf, McCosh was there in a "quasi-official capacity to photograph during that conflict".[3]: 127  His prints from this period are up to 20 cm × 22 cm, suggesting a camera measuring a whole plate in size.[2]
: 912 

McCosh took the first photographs of the Sikh people and palaces of Lahore;[11] the earliest known photograph of Samadhi of Ranjit Singh in 1849.[12] His fifty photographs of Burma from 1852 are the earliest images of the country to have survived[13] and his were the earliest photographic studies of Burmese people.[13]

McCosh predominantly used the

translucent original negative image, a paper negative, from which multiple positives could be made by simple contact printing. McCosh also used the later collodion process,[2]
: 911  though he also continued with the calotype process for larger prints, because of its fidelity.

He gave up photography either in the early 1850s,[7] or as late as 1856[2]: 912  and retired from the army on 31 January 1856.[2][14] In 1862, he became a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.[1]

McCosh died in London in 1885. A stone to his memory stands on the north wall of the first northern extension to Dean Cemetery in west Edinburgh, where his siblings are buried.

Critical response

Roddy Simpson, in The Photography of Victorian Scotland (2012), wrote of McCosh that "these photographs do not have significant aesthetic quality, but show the desire to document likenesses. Given the circumstances, these images are a considerable achievement and, regardless of artistic merit, are historically very important".[7] Taylor and Schaaf, in Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840–1860, wrote that "McCosh fashioned compositions that were exceptional for the period"[3]: 123  and that unlike his contemporaries "in his hands, photography was not merely a pastime, but became the means of recording history."[3]: 123  Taylor and Schaaf have also written that "the kind of work done by McCosh, [John] Murray and [Linnaeus] Tripe was echoed in a wide pattern of photographic activity throughout India, and in many ways, these three can be regarded as role models to whom others looked for inspiration." ... "Few photographers in the calotype era came close to matching the sustained output of these three, and in visual sensitivity and technical bravado they remain unequalled."[3]: 131 

Publications

Publications by McCosh

  • Narrative of the Wreck of the Lady Munro, on the Desolate Island of Amsterdam, October, 1833. Glasgow: W Bennet, 1835.[15]
  • Topography of Assam. Calcutta: G. H. Huttmann, Bengal Military Orphan Press, 1837.[16]
  • Medical Advice to the Indian Stranger. 1841.[17]
  • Advice to Officers in India. Revised edition. London: Wm. H. Allen & Co., 1856
  • Nuova Italia, a Poem. Second series. 1875.
  • Grand Tours in Many Lands, a Poem in 10 Cantos. 1881.[18]
  • Sketches in Verse at Home and Abroad: And from The War of the Nile in Ten Cantos. London: J. Blackwood, 1883.

Publications with material about McCosh

Exhibitions with contributions by McCosh

Collections

Further reading

  • John MacCosh's Photographs. By Peter Russell-Jones,
    Photographic Journal
    , Vol. 108, Jan 1968, pages 25–27.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ It is referred to as "jungle fever", which is what tropical diseases, such as malaria, were known as.
  2. ^ Simpson (2012) claims McCosh began producing images in 1843, as does McKenzie (1987), describing one of McCosh's earliest photographs of Lt Stewart who was killed in 1843. However Hannavy (2007) claims his first datable photograph to be from 1848.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "John McCosh". University of St Andrews. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  2. ^
    ISBN 9781135873264
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0300124057
    .
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-1856694933
    .
  5. ^ Marwil, Jonathan (6 June 2000). "Photography at War". History Today. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  6. ISBN 9781841506005
    .
  7. ^
    ISBN 9780748654642
    .
  8. ^ a b c d e f "First Shots: Early War Photography 1848-60". National Army Museum. Archived from the original on 5 October 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  9. ISBN 978-0-521-30903-5
    .
  10. ISSN 0308-7298
    .
  11. ^ "Sikh historical photographs". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  12. ^ "Photograph". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  13. ^
    ISBN 9789814385749
    .
  14. ^ "Surgeon John McCosh, Bengal Medical Establishment, 1852 (c)". National Army Museum. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  15. ^ McCosh, J. (1835). Narrative of the wreck of the lady Munro, on the desolate island of Amsterdam, October, 1833. W Bennet. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
  16. ^ M'Cosh, J. (1837). Topography of Assam. G. H. Huttmann, Bengal Military Orphan Pres. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
  17. ^ McCosh, J. (1841). Medical advice to the Indian stranger. Allen. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
  18. ISBN 9781293130582
    . Retrieved 13 January 2017.
  19. ^ a b "Manuthiha, Guardian at the Shwe-Dagon Pagoda; Corner of great pagoda". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  20. ^ Edwards, Richard (3 August 2009). "First shots of combat photography in new exhibition of Crimean War". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 1 October 2015.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_McCosh&oldid=1218548726"