Natal Photographers continued: Burgess, Brock and Bowman

Brock's advert in Natal Almanac 1876; the ad tells us he was still
producing cartes-de-visite which could be hand-coloured and even made to 'Life Size'.

William Henry Burgess (mentioned in Russell's History) was one of the earliest photographers in Natal. The Burgess family came to Natal on the ship Rydal in 1856. By 1857 he was taking 'photographic likenesses' by the collodian, or wet-plate, process. His studio was at West Street, Durban.

Burgess, in line with other photographers at that date, had another string to his bow. He was a dispensing chemist. He was also a lay preacher and in 1858 moved to Verulam, Natal, where a number of Wesleyan immigrants had settled. He went to the diamond fields in 1871, returning to Natal in the late 1870s and practising as a chemist at Richmond. He left Natal again in the 1880s, dying in the eastern Transvaal in 1886.

Precisely because he was such an early Natal photographer, there is no advertisement in the Natal Almanac which began to be published later than the year Burgess left for Verulam (1858), though further research may reveal other sources and tell us more about this interesting colonist.

James Saumarez Brock was almost contemporaneous with Burgess, as Brock was in Durban from 1859. In 1862 he took over J N Wheeler's studio in Pietermaritzburg and here he was in partnership with William Bowman, 1863 - 1864. The partnership was dissolved in 1864.  In the late 1860s to early 1870s, Brock lived in the Byrne valley taking individual portraits, family groups and views. Things weren't going too well and Brock entered insolvency proceedings in 1865 - 1867. Emerging from this unfortunate phase, he advertised a Photographic Studio at 24 Longmarket Street, Pietermaritzburg next to the Crown Hotel. Brock took over Bowman's studio at 10 Longmarket Street in 1872 and by 1875 Brock was at 24 Loop Street, Pietermaritzburg.

William Bowman continued his studio, without Brock, as the Natal Photographic Company at 23 Church Street, Pietermaritzburg and Smith Street, Durban from 1865. He was advertising his New Cerrotype Process from 1866 - 1872 and was living at 8 Berg Street, Pietermaritzburg.




Whether the New Cerrotype Process was correctly named in this advert for Bowman and Co is uncertain. It may be an error for Ferrotype, more popularly called a Tintype, in which the plate was a sheet of metal. These were favoured by travelling photographers e.g. at the diamond diggings.

Development of Natal Photography: Burgess, Pulleyn, Brock, Fry and James Lloyd

In his History of Old Durban G Russell gives the following information:




Slightly later than the developments in Europe, Natal photographers were becoming more numerous and trying new processes. Mentioned above is the wet collodian process introduced by Frederick Scott Archer in March 1851. This used glass negatives to produce paper prints. Glass made a better negative because it did not give the grainy effect resulting from fibrous paper. But the process was time-consuming and cumbersome. Nevertheless, it became very popular and to this method we owe the pictorial records of the Crimean War and the American Civil War.

Russell makes the point that the collodian pictures faded into 'ghost shadows', perhaps more so in Natal's sub-tropical climate. Not many examples remain in collections. Most of the photographers named by Russell moved on to other methods.

Brock had a studio in Pietermaritzburg by 1873. It's amusing that he offers 'Portraits taken daily, at all Hours' and we imagine Mr Brock being so enthusiastic that he was prepared to be up from sunrise to sundown to fulfill his customers' wish for photographic immortality. Burgess had moved up the north coast to Verulam, presumably drawing his clientele from the immigrants who had settled there.




















Fry's advert in the Almanac of 1867 shows that his main business was in cartes de visites. A dozen copies at 17/6 seems a very reasonable rate, though each additional figure was 4 shillings extra.

Early Natal Photographers

The earliest documented photographer working in Natal was William Henry Burgess, a ‘dispensing chemist’ by profession, who had arrived on the Rydal in 1856 and advertised in October 1857 as follows in the Durban press:

Photographic Likenesses

Taken by the Collodian Process* …

West Street, Durban, every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday

until further notice.

Hours from half past 10 a.m. till 3 o’clock p.m.

Terms Cash.

By early 1858 Burgess had moved to Verulam on the Natal North Coast where he continued as a chemist, though not, as far as we know, as a photographer.

Other early Natal photographers included J S Brock, Bowman, Fry & Co., James Pulleyn (listed as a watchmaker of West Street in the 1856-57 Durban electoral roll) and James Lloyd.

*George Russell notes in his History of Old Durban, ‘alas! the collodian process … has yielded to our climate, for few of their works survive them. They are now, with rare exceptions, faded ghost shadows of the persons and scenes which they took’.

Wet collodian negatives – glass plates – could be used to make prints on albumen paper: however, these printed images tended to turn yellow and fade, as Russell points out above. 

Brock and Bowman in partnership, 1864