Benutzer:MYR67/Artikelwerkstatt John McCosh

aus Wikipedia, der freien Enzyklopädie

John (auch: James oder Jethro) McCosh (auch: MacCosh, M'Cosh; * 5. März 1805 in Kirkmichael (South Ayrshire), Schottland, † 16. März[1] 1885 in London) war ein schottischer Militär-Chirurg, Amateur-Fotograf und Schriftsteller. In den 25 Jahren von 1831 bis 1856 diente der Schotte John McCosh als Militär-Chirurg des Indian Medical Service in der bengalischen Armee der britischen Britischen Ostindien-Kompanie. Der Nachwelt bekanntgeworden ist er durch seine Fotografien aus Britisch-Indien, die zu den frühsten Fotoaufnahmen aus dieser Weltregion zählen; er gilt zudem als einer der ersten namentlich bekannten Kriegsfotografen;[2] seinen Zeitgenossen war er eher als Arzt und Dichter bekannt.

Lebensweg

Die Eltern von John McCosh waren John McCosh (senior) und seine Frau Robina, geb. Main. Das Paar heiratete am 24. Juni 1801.[3]. Auch wenn der Vater John McCosh Landvermesser war,[4] so stammt John McCosh, sein Sohn, doch aus einer Familie, die viele Ärzte hervorgebracht hat; auch mehrere seiner Brüder waren Ärzte.[5]

Im Jahr 1831, im Alter von 26 Jahren, trat John McCosh als chirurgischer Assistenz-Arzt in den Santitätsdienst der Bengalischen Armee der britischen Ost-Indien-Kompagnie ein.

In den Jahren 1832 und '33 leistete er aktiven Militärdienst an der nordöstlichen Grenze Britisch-Indiens gegen das Kol-Volk.[6]

In dieser Zeit erkrankte er an einer tropischen Fieberkrankheit. Im Jahr 1833 trat er eine Reise von Indien nach Tasmanien (damals: Van Diemen's Land) auf der SS Lady Munro an, die jedoch Schriffbruch erlitt. Von den 97 Menschen an Bord überlebten nur 21, der fieberkranke McCosh war der einzige überlebende Passagier der Lady Munro. Am 11./12. Oktober 1833 strandeten McCosh und die anderen Überlebenden des Schiffsunglücks auf der Amsterdam-Insel im südlichen Indischen Ozean.[7]. Etwa zwei Wochen später, am 26. Oktober 1833, wurden sie von dem US-amerikanischen Schiff General Jackson gerettet und nach Mauritius gebracht. Über seine Erlebnisse als Schiffbrüchiger verfasste McCosh den Erlebnisbericht „Narrative of the Wreck of the Lady Munro, on the Desolate Island of Amsterdam, October, 1833“, der 1835 in Glasgow erschien.[8]

In den rund vier Jahren von etwa 1838 bis etwa 1842 studierte John McCosh an der Universität Edinburgh[9], wo er einen Abschluss in Chirurgie und Medizinrecht erwarb.

Wahrscheinlich im Jahr 1842 oder 1843 kehrte er in den medizinischen Militärdienst nach Britisch-Indien zurück.[10] Im Jahr 1844 ging er mit der „31st Bengal Native Infantry“ nach Almera in den Ausläufern des Himalayas.[11]

Im Jahr 1846 zog McCosh nach Jullundur Doab (Doaba) im Punjab.[12]

1847/48 diente McCosh in Firozpur in Gwalior.[13] Im Sepoy-Aufstand von 1857 war Gwalior ein Zentrum der aufständischen, in britischen Diensten stehenden indischen Soldaten (Sepoy). Nach der Schlacht von Maharajpur im Jahr 1857 erhielt McCosh den „Bronze Star“, eine militärische Auszeichnung.[14]

Im Jahr 1847, unmittelbar vor dem zweiten Sikh-Krieg, war John McCosh in Lahore (heute: Pakistan) und Ludhiana (heute: Indien) als Militärchirurg bei den „2nd Bengal Europeans“ stationiert.[15] Er nahm am zweiten Sikh-Krieg (April 1848 bis März 1849) teil, der das Ende des Sikh-Königreichs im Punjab herbeiführte. McCosh machte dort in seiner Freizeit nicht nur Aufnahmen der Paläste in Lahore, sondern auch die ersten bekannten Fotografien von Sikhs.[16] Unter McCosh' Aufnahmen ist die einzige bekannte Fotografie von Duleep Singh als (letztem) Maharadscha des Reichs der Sikh.[17] McCosh hat auch den Governeur von Multan, Diwan Mulraj, fotografiert,[18] der eine zentrale Figur im zweiten Sikh-Krieg war.

1851 wurde er der „33rd Bengal Native Infantry“ zugeteilt, die in Benares stationiert war; 1852 kam er zur „5th Battery Bengal Artillery“. Mit dieser begalischen Artillerie-Einheit wurde er in Kalkutta – wo er Fotos aufnahm – eingeschifft, um am zweiten anglo-birmesischen Krieg teilzunehmen. Auch in Birma machte McCosh zahlreiche Aufnahmen.[19].

Zu einer Fotoausstellung in Bombay im Jahr 1855 reichte McCosh von ihm selbst von Hand kolorierte Fotografien bei der Photographischen Gesellschaft von Bombay ein.[20]

Spätestens seit 1856 war McCosh Mitglied der fotografischen Gesellschaft (Photographic Society), London.[21]

Im Jahr 1856, im Alter von 51 Jahren, wurde McCosh aus der Armee entlassen.[22] In seinen 1856 erschienenen Ratschlägen für Offiziere in Indien („Advice to Officers in India“) empfiehlt John McCosh jedem Assistenzchirurgen dringend, es zur Meisterschaft in der Fotografie in all ihren Zweigen zu bringen, „… auf Papier, auf Glasplatten und auf Metallplatten. Ich habe die Fotografie viele Jahre lang praktiziert und kenne keine außerberufliche Beschäftigung, die den Offizier für alle Kosten und Mühen (und beide sind beträchtlich) mehr entschädigen würde als dieses faszinierende Studium – insbesondere das neue Kollodiumverfahren für das Stereoskop. Im Laufe seines Dienstes in Indien kann er so eine Sammlung getreuer Darstellungen von Menschen und Tieren oder von Architektur und Landschaft anlegen, die einen willkommenen Beitrag zu jedem Museum darstellen würde.“[23]

Im Jahr 1862 wurde er Mitglied der Royal Geographical Society.[24] McCosh schrieb und veröffentlichte auch Gedichte. Er starb am 16. März 1885 in London. Etliche seiner Fotografien werden im National Army Museum sowie im Victoria and Albert Museum aufbewahrt.[25] Ein Gedenkstein für McCosh steht auf dem Dean-Friedhof im Westen Edinburghs, an der Nordwand der ersten nördlichen Erweiterung, wo auch seine Geschwister begraben sind.

Einordnung / Bedeutung

Im zweiten Sikh-Krieg (1848-1849) und im zweiten anglo-birmanischen Krieg (1852-1853) nahm McCosh eine Reihe von Kalotypien auf, die zu den frühesten erhaltenen Militär- und Kriegsfotografien gehören. Allerdings hat McCosh keineswegs nur Kampfschauplätze, Schlachtfelder, Kriegsgerät, Portraitfotos seiner Kameraden und ähnliche militärische Motive fotografiert, sondern vieles, was ihm bemerkenswert erschien, etwa auch einheimische Menschen in traditioneller Kleidung, lokaltypische Architektur, Landschaften, Straßenszenen und so weiter. Erhalten geblieben ist ein Album von 1859, das mehr as 300 Abzüge enthält, die Mehrzahl von Kalotypie-Negativen, aber auch 31 von Kollodium-Nassplatten. Das Album befindet sich heute im Bestand des National Army Museums in London. Etliche dieser Aufnahmen hat Cosh in Kriegsgebieten und Kampfzonen aufgenommen, sie unterscheiden sich aber sowohl in ihrem Bildgegenstand als auch in ihrer Bildauffassung von den Kriegsfotografien etwa Roger Fentons, Felice Beatos, James Robertsons, Alexander Gardners und anderer Kriegsfotografen.[26]

Publikationen von John McCosh (Auswahl)

Literatur und Quellen


Rohstoffe und Zettelkasten

URLs meiner Quellen

Encyclopaedia of 19th Century Photgraphers

In India, John McCosh practised calotype photography while serving as a surgeon in the East India Company’s army during the Second Sikh War (1848–49) and wrote ‘I would strongly recommend every assistant surgeon to make himself master of photography in all its branches.’

John Ward, HISTORY: 3. PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE 1840s, S. 679

MCCOSH, JOHN (1816–1894)

British photographer, doctor, writer, and poet

The life of military surgeon Dr. John McCosh was full of incident. Present during some of the many wars of Victorian India, he took to photography as a hobby, and perhaps as a relief from the stresses of surgery under military conditions. He was widely travelled, and survived a terrible shipwreck when the SS Lady Munro was lost en route to Tasmania from India in 1836. McCosh, sent on the voyage to recuperate after a serious bout of fever, went on to write about the incident in great detail. He later published his account, and during his lifetime published several volumes of writings on subjects as diverse as travel, photography, poetry, and medicine. The early calotypes by Dr. John McCosh embrace a number of applications of photography, and at first glance defy simple classification. Their diversity is perhaps the key to understanding them. McCosh, a British military surgeon, used the medium simply to preserve images of the people and places he came into contact with, much as the majority of camera-users do today. Attributing to him the accolade of being the first war photographer—as many writers have done over the years—is to place his work within a context the photographer himself would not have recognised. In the introduction to a surviving album of his work, we noted:

These photographs have no pretensions to merit. The negatives were taken on paper before the present process of collodion was known. Their fidelity will, however, make amends for their sorry imperfections. Like fragile remains of lost ages, their value is enhanced because the originals are no longer forthcoming.

That single album, assembled in 1859, contains over three hundred prints, the majority from calotype negatives, and thirty-one from collodion negatives. It is now in the collection of the National Army Museum, London. Contained within its pages are many portraits of friends and fellow officers, portraits of Burmese men and women, a number of views of the architecture, landscape and military installations of the places in which he served as an army doctor—Burma, Bengal, and elsewhere in India, and a single calotype image by Calvert Jones. Included are a number of images unquestionably taken while on active service in war zones, but these are far removed in subject and treatment from the photography at war—or of war—created by Roger Fenton, James Robertson, Alexander Gardner, and others. Writing in 1856 in Advice to Officers in India, after he had retired from the army, McCosh wrote

I would strongly recommend every assistant-surgeon to make himself a master of photography in all its branches, on paper, on plate glass, and on metallic plates. I have practised it for many years, and know of no extra professional pursuit that will more repay him for all the expense and trouble (and both are very considerable) than this fascinating study—especially the new process by Collodion for the stereoscope. During the course of his service in India, he may make such a faithful collection of representations of man and animals, or architecture and landscape, that would be a welcome contribution to any museum.

These remarks confirm that he had used collodion, and certainly thirty-one of the prints in the album are from collodion negatives, but the architectural views are all on paper. While two of his early calotype self-portraits are captioned “the Artist”—two others taken on collodion are untitled—his advice to other aspiring photographers makes reference only to representation and not to any aesthetic sensibilities or intentions. McCosh was introduced to photography some time in the 1840s. The earliest image for which a date can be conjectured is 1848, and the naivety of the images from this date suggests that these may be early examples of his photography. His interest in the medium may have been triggered some time between 1844 and 1847, when he was stationed near the Nepal border at Almra. Much of his work is small format, with images measuring no more than 10cm x 8cm, and typically limited to simply posed studies of colleagues and friends. The format of his portraits varied little whether on paper or glass, suggesting the same camera might have been used for both. Amongst his subjects were Vans Agnew, photographed in 1848. Shortly after posing for McCosh’s camera, Agnew was murdered by the local Hindu Governor, Mulráj during the 2nd Sikh War. The combination of a small camera with which to make his calotype negatives, a large lens, and the bright light of the Indian sub-continent combined to reduce exposure times considerably. The combination of these features enabled McCosh to pose and photograph his subjects with little need to contrive positions that could be sustained for extended periods of time. Even in his early works the figures seem relaxed and natural. Several of his Burmese images show growing confidence in posing his subjects and in controlling the medium. McCosh worked outdoors often posing his subjects posed against white backgrounds. Relaxed squatting or crouching poses have been used, giving a modernity and an immediacy to the faces and figures he presents. This very direct approach belies the age of these images and the insensitivity of the process he was using. By the time of the 2nd Burma War 1852–1853, lightweight bellows cameras—such as those designed by William [Marcus] Sparling, Major Halkett and others—were available, and by the mid 1850s when McCosh wrote his Advice to Officers in India they had become commonplace for military personnel and other amateurs working overseas. To McCosh, they offered no attraction whatsoever and he commented

The camera should be made of good substantial mahogany, clamped with brass, made to stand extremes of heat. The flimsy, folding portable cameras, made light for Indian use, soon become useless.

From that it can be assumed that he remained loyal to the sliding box design, despite its weight. Several of the images produced in 1852 and 1853 are of a larger format than those from earlier in his career, pointing to a larger—and heavier—camera. The prints from these later negatives measure up to 20cm × 22cm, suggesting a camera approaching whole plate in size, compared to the probable quarter plate size of earlier images. Although there are no specific dates attributable to his collodion images, it is clear McCosh continued to take photographs well into the 1850s. Indeed, he appears in an 1856 photograph taken at Hampton Court by Roger Fenton to commemorate the summer outing of the three year old Photographic Society, posing in front of a horse-drawn photographic carriage similar to that used by Fenton for much of his collodion photography.

John Hannavy

Biography

John McCosh was born into a medical family in the Scottish village of Kirkmichael in Ayrshire on the 5th of March 1805. Several brothers also became doctors, and John joined the Bengal Medical Service as an assistant surgeon at the age of twenty-six. He enrolled at Edinburgh University in 1840 to take a degree in military surgery, surgery, and medical jurisprudence. His medical career was spent almost entirely in and around India, and saw service in the 2nd Sikh War (1848–1849) and the 2nd Burma War (1852–1853). It is from the period spanned by these two conflicts that his surviving photography dates. He retired from the army in 1856. In addition to his interests in medicine and photography, McCosh enjoyed writing poetry, and published several works of verse after retiring from military service. He died in London on 16th March 1885. The generally accepted spelling of his name is “McCosh” although “MacCosh” and the abbreviated “M’Cosh” have also been identified. The images in the surviving album are identified as “Photographs by Jethro M’Cosh, Surgeon, Bengal Army.”

See also: Calotypes and Talbotypes; War Photography; and Wet Collodion Negative.

Further Reading

  • Hannavy, John, A Moment in Time: Scottish Contributions to Photography 1840–1920, Glasgow: Third Eye Centre, 1983.
  • Hershkowitz, Robert, The British Photographer Abroad, London: Robert Hershkowitz, 1980.
  • McCosh, John, Advice to Officers in India, London: Allan and Company, 1856.
  • McKenzie, Ray, “‘The Labour of Mankind’” John McCosh and the Beginnings of Photography in British India” in History of Photography, 109–118, London: Taylor & Francis, 1987.
  • Russell-Jones, Peter, “John McCosh’s Photographs” in The Photographic Journal, 25–27, London: The Royal Photographic Society, 1968.
  • Worswick, Clark, The Last Empire, London: Gordon Fraser, 1976.

John Hannavy, „MCCOSH, JOHN“, S. 911/912

John McCosh, surgeon in the employ of East India Company’s infantry produced landscape and architectural views while engaged in at least two tours of duty, the Second Sikh War (1848–49), and the Second Burmese War (1852). His realization of the significance of the camera for multiple subjects led him to include a section on photography in his Advice to Officers in India, published in 1856. McCosh’s conviction of the medium’s importance coincided with the flourishing of other efforts on the subcontinent and elsewhere. In addition to McCosh’s fellow doctor John Murray, British army officers Captain Thomas Biggs, Captain Linnaeus Tripe, Major Robert Tytler, and his wife Harriet Christina, were enchanted with India’s splendid architectural past, and thus contributed to a growing archive that increased throughout the second half of the century.

Gary D Sampson, „MILITARY PHOTOGRAPHY“, S. 930

The first identifiable photographer who took pictures in a wartime environment was John McCosh. McCosh served as a British surgeon during the Second Sikh War (1848–1849) in India and the Second Burma War (1852). Using the calotype, McCosh photographed fellow soldiers, artillery, and ruins.

Debra Gibney, WAR PHOTOGRAPHY, S. 1467

Kamat Research database

Photographer John McCosh

John McCosh, (1805-1885) was one of the first photographers known to have worked in India. He was an army surgeon with the East India Company. He was based in Lahore and Ludhiana just before the Second Anglo-Sikh war in 1847, and produced many photographs using the calotype process, including the only known picture of Duleep Singh as a Maharaja. The reign of this boy king, the son of Ranjit Singh, was ended by the war.

Kamat’s Potpopurri, Kamat Research database, “John McCosh”, https://www.kamat.com/database/content/photographers/john_mccosh.htm

Historic Camera

Dr. John McCosh

John McCosh, a descendant of several generations of medical professionals, was born in Kirkmichael, Ayrshire, Scotland, on March 5, 1805. Not surprisingly, he became a physician, and by age 26, he was an assistant surgeon assigned to the Bengal Medical Service. For the next decade, Dr. McCosh sewed up his fellow soldiers while himself enduring several bouts of debilitating illness. When his initial tour was concluded, he continued his surgical studies at Edinburgh University, where it is believed he became acquainted with photography, perhaps through the calotypes of St. Andrews-based David Brewster. Virtually nothing is known about Dr. McCosh receiving any type of formal instruction, and the possibility exists that he may well have been self-taught. By the time he returned to the Bengal Medical Service in 1843, his clunky, folding camera rarely left his side.

Though never shirking his surgical duties during the Second Sikh War (1848-1849) and Second Burma War (1852-1853), Dr. McCosh was possibly the first man to realize the significance of wartime photography. His prolonged service in India provided him with an appreciation for the country and its people that he wanted to immortalize on film. He became something of a local camera expert, recommending that amateurs invest in sturdy mahogany cameras capable of withstanding the brutal Indian heat. His original camera of choice was his battle-worn portable camera that produced small format images (usually 4x3”). With practice, he used fitted it with a large lens to take calotype negatives that enabled him to take professional-looking photographs requiring scant exposure times. Dr. McCosh later progressed to large-format stereographs, and his works sufficiently impressed Multan Governor Diwan Mulraj enough to consent to a private sitting with the doctor.

Dr. McCosh’s admiration from the Indians he encountered on his tours of duty was emphasized by his insistence upon lowering his camera so that he could face them at eye level, and thus demonstrate a level of respect uncharacteristic of British imperialists. He captured their descriptive racial characteristics and distinctive dress in a manner more reminiscent of an anthropologist than of a colonial photographer. His framing was specially chosen to enhance his subjects’ skin tones, and his composition accentuated their physical contours. Dr. McCosh’s progression to a bulkier-weight camera enabled him to effectively reproduce the vastness of Indian urban landscapes.

After his retirement from the military, Dr. McCosh shifted his aesthetic attention to poetry, but he shared his impressive photographic knowledge with fledgling Bengal soldiers in his 1856 text, Advice to Officers in India. However, despite the artistic strides he had taken as a photographer, Dr. McCosh was clearly a man of his time. He fervently believed wartime photography made for a persuasive argument in support of British colonization. This likely led to the increasing prominence of photography in furthering the British military’s propagandist agenda. Eighty-year-old Dr. John McCosh, the self-described amateur photographer, died in London on March 16, 1885. Several of his photographs are housed within the National Army Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, which collectively serve as a testament to their artistic and historical value.

Ref:

  • 2007 Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, Vol. I (New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group LLC), pp. 911-912.
  • 2007 Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840-1860 by Roger Taylor (New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art), pp. 121-123.
  • 2001 India: Pioneering Photographers: 1850-1900 by John Falconer (London, UK: The British Library and The Howard and Jane Ricketts Collection), p. 13.
  • 2002 Photography: A Cultural History by Mary Warner Marien (London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd.), p. 49.
  • 2012 Photography of Victorian Scotland by Roddy Simpson (Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press Ltd.), p. 105.
  • 1997 Picturing Empire: Photography and the Visualization of the British Empire by James R. Ryan (London, UK: Reaktion Books Ltd.), pp. 77-78.
  • 1979 Roopa-Lekhā, Vol. L (Delhi, India: All-India Fine Arts and Crafts Society), p. 87.
  1. 3827

2020-05-03 15:14:36

Copyright © 2002 - 2019 Historic Camera, https://historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium2/pm.cgi?action=app_display&app=datasheet&app_id=3827&

Luminous Lint

Names: Other: Dr John M'Cosh Other: Dr John McCosh Other: John MacCosh Other: Surgeon John McCosh Dates: 1805, 5 March - 1885, 16 January Born: Scotland, Ayrshire, Kirkmichael Died: UK, England, London Active: India / Burma

A doctor in the army of the East India Company, and served with the Bengal Artillery during the Second Sikh War (1848-49) and the Second Burma War (1852-53). A collection of military photographs attributed to him is in the National Army Museum, Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, London, SW3 4HT.

Preparing biographies

Approved biography for John McCosh Courtesy of the Victoria & Albert Museum (London, UK)

John McCosh was a doctor and amateur photographer stationed in Burma during the Anglo-Burmese War of 1852.

This biography is courtesy and copyright of the Victoria & Albert Museum and is included here with permission.

Date last updated: 11 Nov 2011.

---

Approved biography for John McCosh Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA)

The son of a Scottish surveyor, McCosh (also MacCosh) studied medicine in Edinburgh and joined the Indian Medical Service in 1831. Returning to India from Tasmania, where he had been on sick leave with jungle fever, he was the sole survivor when his ship was wrecked off the desolate island of Amsterdam in 1833. Stationed in the foothills of the Himalayas, he took up photography in 1844. McCosh is best known for the small calotype negatives, mostly portraits, which he took during the Second Sikh War in 1848, today recognized as the earliest war photographs. He again turned to photography for the Second Burmese War in 1852, this time using a larger camera. McCosh was not only an early photographer but one always aware of artistic considerations. He submitted hand-colored photographs to the 1855 exhibition of the Photographic Society of Bombay. In the revised edition of his Advice to Officers in India (1856), McCosh urged “every assistant-surgeon to make himself master of photography in all its branches, on paper, on plate glass, and on metallic plates. I have practised it for many years, and know of no extra professional pursuit that will more repay him for all the expense and trouble (and both are very considerable) than this fascinating study . . . during the course of his service in India, he may make such a faithful collection of representations of man and animals, of architecture and landscape, that would be a welcome contribution to any museum.” For the humid climate he recommended French paper, rather than English, as well as a substantial mahogany camera, observing that “it is a great mistake to make things light and portable for Indian use, as if the owner himself had to carry them. Carriage for every piece of apparatus is cheap, safe, and abundant.” McCosh later turned to travel and poetry, bringing to the latter more enthusiasm than talent.

Roger Taylor & Larry J. Schaaf, Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840-1860 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2007)

This biography is courtesy and copyright of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is included here with permission.

Date last updated: 4 Nov 2012.

---

John Falconer, British Library A Biographical Dictionary of 19th Century Photographers in South and South-East Asia

Amateur, India, Burma

Son of John McCosh, land surveyor of Kirkmichael, Ayr and Robina Main (who married 24.6.1801); baptised, 12 Mar 1805 at Kirkmichael; MD, Edinburgh, 1841; Indian Medical Service (Bengal), 1831-56. Sailed for India on the Farquarson on 2 Feb 1831. Only survivor of the wreck of the barque Lady Munro on island of Amsterdam, 11 Oct 1833; served in operations against Kols on S.W. Frontier 1832-3; Second Sikh or Punjab War 1848-9; Burma 1852-4.

Author: Narrative of the loss of the ‘Lady Munro’ (1835); Topography of Assam (1837); Medical advice to the Indian stranger (1841); Advice to officers in India (1843); Nuova Italia, a poem (1873); Grand tour in many lands, a poem (1881).

Took calotype portraits and a view of the tomb of Ranjit Singh at Lahore during the Second Sikh War, 1848-9; joined the 5th Battery, Bengal Infantry and photographed scenes during the Second Anglo-Burmese War in 1852. Sent specimens of his work, some coloured by himself, to the Bombay Photographic Society in 1855 (jnl, Jul 1855). McCosh's work is some of the earliest surviving from India and Burma.

His Advice to officers in India (London, 1856, p. 7) recommends photography as a useful and satisfying pastime in India:

I would strongly recommend every assistant-surgeon to make himself master of photography in all its branches, on paper, on plate glass, and on metallic plates. I have practised it for many years, and know of no extra professional pursuit that will more repay him for all the expense and trouble (and both are very considerable) than this fascinating study - especially the new process by collodion for the stereoscope. During the course of his service in India, he may make such a faithful collection of representations of man and animals, of architecture and landscape, that would be a welcome contribution to any museum. The camera should be made of good substantial mahogany, clamped with brass, made to stand extremes of heat. The flimsy, folding portable cameras, made light for Indian use, soon become useless. It is a great mistake to make things light and portable for Indian use, as if the owner himself had to carry them. Carriage for every piece of apparatus is cheap, safe, and abundant. French paper, Canson freres is the best, and does not get damaged by damp so soon as English paper.

Collection in National Army Museum, London [IOR/L/MIL/9/5] [IOR/L/MIL/9/382/ff.78-83]

Luminous Lint, http://www.luminous-lint.com/app/photographer/John__McCosh/ABCDEF/

PeoplePill

Quick Facts Intro: Scottish army surgeon and photographer A.K.A.: John MacCosh, James McCosh Was: Photographer From: United Kingdom Field: Arts Gender: male Birth: 5 March 1805, Kirkmichael, South Ayrshire, Scotland, United Kingdom Death: 1885, London, Greater London, London, England (aged 79 years) Star sign: Pisces

Biography

John McCosh or John MacCosh or James McCosh (Kirkmichael, Ayrshire, 5 March 1805 – 18 January / 16 March 1885) was a Scottish army surgeon who made hobbyist photographs whilst serving in India and Burma. His photographs during the Second Anglo-Sikh War (1848–49) of people and places associated with the British rule in India (for which he is best known), and of the Second Burmese War (1852–53), count as sufficient grounds, some historians maintain, to recognise him as the first war photographer known by name. 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". Taylor and Schaaf have written that "McCosh fashioned compositions that were exceptional for the period" and that unlike his contemporaries "in his hands, photography was not merely a pastime but became the means of recording history."

Life and work

In 1831, aged 26, 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.

He saw active service on the north-east frontier of India against the Kol people in 1832–1833.

On 11 October 1833, on sick leave with a tropical disease, the barque on which he was sailing from Madras to Hobart in Tasmania, Australia, was wrecked off the desolate and remote Amsterdam Island in the southern Indian Ocean. 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. 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 / 1841–1842 he returned to Edinburgh for further training as a surgeon, studying military surgery, surgery and medical jurisprudence at Edinburgh University.

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. He was awarded the Gwalior Star for Maharajpoor. McCosh began producing photographs either in 1843 or 1848.

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

In 1848 in the Punjab, he took part in the Second Anglo-Sikh War (1848–49) with the 5th Battery, Bengal Artillery / 2nd Bengal European regiment, where he was full surgeon. He saw active service in Yangon (known by the British as Rangoon) and Prome. Mostly his photographs were portraits of fellow officers, key figures from the campaigns, administrators and their wives and daughters, including Patrick Alexander Vans Agnew,:911 Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount Gough; the British commander General Sir Charles James Napier; and Dewan Mulraj / Mul Raj, the Diwan (governor) of the city of Multan (a key leader of the Sikh nation against the British). He also photographed local people and architecture. His prints from this period measure no larger than 10 cm × 8 cm and were likely made from a quarter-plate sized camera.:911–912

He was in Burma (now known as Myanmar) during the Second Burmese War (1852–53) where he made portraits of colleagues, captured guns, temple architecture in Yangon and Burmese people, using a larger and heavier camera and producing larger prints. According to Taylor and Schaaf, Mccosh was there in a "quasi-official capacity to photograph during that conflict".:127 His prints from this period are up to 20 cm × 22 cm, suggesting a camera measuring a whole plate in size.:912

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

McCosh predominantly used the calotype process for his photography, the first practicable negative and positive process, using paper, patented by Henry Fox Talbot in 1841. This process produced a 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:911 though continued with the caltype process for larger prints because of its fidelity.

He gave up photography either in the early 1850s, or as late as 1856.:912 He retired from the army on 31 January 1856. He became a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1862. He died in London in 1885.

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". 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":123 and that unlike his contemporaries "in his hands, photography was not merely a pastime but became the means of recording history.":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.":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.
  • Topography of Assam. Calcutta: G. H. Huttmann, Bengal Military Orphan Press, 1837.
  • Medical Advice to the Indian Stranger. 1841.
  • Advice to Officers in India. 1843. Revised edition. London: Wm. H. Allen & Co., 1856.
  • Nuova Italia, a Poem. 1873. Second series. 1875.
  • Grand Tours in Many Lands, a Poem in 10 Cantos. 1881.
  • 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:

  • The Oxford Companion to the Photograph. Oxford: Oxford University, 2005. Edited by Robin Lenman. Includes a short biography on McCosh.
  • Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840–1860. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007. By Roger Taylor with Larry John Schaaf. ISBN 978-0300124057. Includes a profile of McCosh.
  • Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography. Edited by John Hannavy. Abingdon, Oxford: Taylor & Francis, 2007; London: Routledge, 2013. ISBN 9781135873264 [Titel anhand dieser ISBN in Citavi-Projekt übernehmen] .
  • 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.
  • M'Cosh, J. (1837). Topography of Assam. G. H. Huttmann, Bengal Military Orphan Pres. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
  • McCosh, J. (1841). Medical advice to the Indian stranger. Allen. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
  • McCosh, J. (2013). Grand Tours in Many Lands: A Poem in Ten Cantos - Primary Source Edition. BiblioBazaar. ISBN 9781293130582 [Titel anhand dieser ISBN in Citavi-Projekt übernehmen] . Retrieved 13 January 2017.

Exhibitions with contributions by McCosh

  • Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840–1860, Musée d'Orsay, 1 January 2005 – 7 September 2008. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, 1 March 2002 – 4 May 2008. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 31 December 2007 – 31 December 2009.
  • First Shots: Early War Photography 1848–60, White Space Gallery, National Army Museum, London, 2009. Photographs by McCosh, Roger Fenton, James Robertson and Felice Beato.
  • Edwards, Richard (3 August 2009). "First shots of combat photography in new exhibition of Crimean War". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 1 October 2015.

PeoplePill, https://peoplepill.com/people/john-mccosh/

EdinPhoto, Peter Russell-Jones

John McCosh or MacCosh 1805-1885

John McCosh was born on 5 March 1805 and died on 18 January 1885. [I've not yet discovered the places of birth and death.]

UPDATE

Thank you to David Bruce who wrote:

"I believe that John MacCosh (or McCosh) was from Kirkmichael in Ayrshire where the local village hall is named after him."

David Bruce, Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire, Scotland: April 7, 2010

John McCosh spent much of his life in India, serving as a surgeon with the East India Company, with a break of about 4 years around 1840 when he returned to Edinburgh to study at

1831: John McCosh entered the service in the Bengal Establishment of the East India Company's Army, as assistant surgeon.

1832-33: He served on the South-East Frontier against the Kols.

c.1838-42: He studied in Edinburgh to complete his formal education in medicine.

1843-44: He returned to India (probably taking his photographic equipment with him). One of his earliest photographs is of Lt Stewart, who was killed in 1843. [Ray McKenzie] He served in Gwalior, where he was awarded the Marahajpur Bronze Star for his service in the Battle of Maharajpur.

1844: He moved, with the 31st Bengal Native Infantry to Almera in the foothills of the Himalayas. It was here where he probably began his photography in earnest. [Peter Russell-Jones]

1846: He moved to Jullundur Doob

1847/48: He moved to Ferozepore in Gwalior

1848: He was based in Lahore and Ludhiaana, immediately before the second Anglo-Sikh war

1848-49: He participated in the second Sikh War which resulted in the abrogation of the Sikh kingdom of the Punjab. He took photographs while off duty.

1849: He was appointed Surgeon to the 2nd Bengal Europeans, stationed in Lahore. Here he took the first known photographs of the Sikh people and photographs of the palaces of Lahore.

1851: He was posted to the 33rd Bengal Native Infantry, stationed at Benares.

1852: He was posted to the 5th Battery Bengal Artillery.

1852-53: He sailed with the Bengal Artillery from Calcutta (which hi photographed) to serve in the second Burma War. He took many photos during the second Burma War.

1856: John McCosh retired from the army.


John McCosh

Photography

Views on Photography

John McCosh took many photographs over about a decade, from around the mid 1840s. Most of his photographs were calotypes, and most were portraits.

His photographs taken in the second Sikh War are referred to in the 'National Army Museum' notes below

Here are extracts from advice that he gave in a note addressed to Officers in 1856:

Photography

"I have practiced it for many years, and know of no extra professional pursuit that will more repay him for all the expense and trouble (and both are very considrable) than this fascinating study - especially the new process by collodion for the stereoscope."

"The camera should be made of good substantial mahogany, clamped with brass, made to stand extremes of heat."

Sizes and Subjects

McCosh's calotype portraits are 10cm x 8cm. Some of his views are larger. His prints from Calcutta are up to 15cm x 19cm. Those from the second Burma War being up to 20.5cm x 21cm.

In the second Burma War he was present at the attack on Rangoon. He photographed captured Burmese guns, pagodas, monasteries and palaces in the city. He took similar photos at Prone after its capture.

Photos on the Web

Three photographs by John McCosh can be found in an article entitled:

"Ethnographical Photography in India 1850-1900"

on the Andaman web site (http://www.andaman.org/book/reprints/falconer/rep-falconer.htm).


John McCosh

Photographs in Collections

National Army Museum

An album of McCosh's photographs is now held by the National Army Museum in London. The album appears to have been assembled without any overall plan. Some of its photos are duplicates. It may have been assembled in an attempt to bring together McCosh's collection of photographs at a time when he was moving on to other interests.

This note by John Gore appears in the front of the album:

"These photographs have no pretensions to merit. The negatives were taken on paper before the present process of collodion was known. Their fidelity will however make amends for their sorry imperfections. Like fragile remains of lost ages, their value is enhanced because the originals are no longer forthcoming."

The album includes 310 photographs, almost all are calotypes, most are portraits. The album includes

- Portraits of many of British Officers and their wives. The subjects were represented as individuals - e.g. Captain Jones, Madras

- Portraits of some of the local Indian population. These were described in ethnic or racial terms e.g. "Burmese Beauty" and "Madras Man".

- 47 views of Burma, including temples and buildings around Prome and Rangoon.

- 2 views of Calcutta, 3 of Lahore, 2 of Calcutta, 1 possibly of Malta and 2 of relics.

V & A Museum

The Persimmon web site (http://www.persimmon-mag.com/spring2000/bre_sp2000_2.htm) refers to photos of different types of people of India sent to the India Museum and included in an eight volume set, published between 1868 and 1875, entitled 'The People of India'.

This web site also gives a review of the book 'The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms' which includes a chapter entitled: 'Photography and the Romance of the Punjab'

The India Museum has been absorbed by the Victoria & Albert Museum. I contacted the Victoria & Albert Museum and Ms Divia Patel told me that:

- the chapter entitled: 'Photography and the Romance of the Punjab' above was in fact written by her (not David Patel). However, this chapter has been reduced to such an extent that she believes that the review misrepresents McCosh's photography.

- McCosh's photographs do not appear in the eight volume set of published books entitled 'The people of India'.

John McCosh

Other Interests

John McCosh MD FRSCE HEICS FRGSL etc. had many interests.

In the 1830s, he produced lithographs. One of these, from 1837, taken from Topography of Assan, is illustrated in the article: The Laboratory of Mankind by Ray MacKenzie.

He wrote about ten books, several of them featuring his poetry.

When he retired in 1856, John McCosh was probably better remembered for his good medical advice that he had given and for his poetry than for his photography.

[Peter Russell-Jones]

MaddyWorks

John McCosh (1805-1885), a Scottish army surgeon and a photographer was, employed by the Indian Medical Service during 1831–56. He was considered to be one of the first war photographer and the first one to have worked in India.

During his service as a Surgeon with the Bengal Army in the second Sikh War (1848-1849) and second Burma War (1852-1853), he has photographed series of Calotypes which are amongst the earliest military photographs in existence. The Calotype process also called Talbotype, was a refinement of the process of Photogenic Drawing and considered to be the first practicable negative and positive process on paper. The process uses silver nitrate and potassium iodide solution, and it was patented by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1841. The process was not widely used due to the patent, but it was popular with British and French photographers.

John McCosh, photographed portraits of British military personnel and their families as well as Bengalis, Sikhs, Pathans and Burmese. As photography science and John McCosh skills improved he photographed larger landscape. Military scenes, and temple architecture.

John McCosh produced many fine photographs and the National Army Museum holds an album of these rare images. It is also said that John McCosh photographed only known picture of young His Highness Maharaja Sir Duleep Singh and youngest son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Whereabouts of Sir Duleep Singh photographs are unknown.

In his book, “Photography of Victorian Scotland” Mr Roddy Simpson writes “John McCosh with commendable pioneering zeal, was producing images from 1843. These photographs do not have significant aesthetic quality but show the desire to document likenesses. Giving the circumstances, these images are a considerable achievement and, regardless of artistic merit, are historically very important” Caption: Mul Raj was governor (Diwan) of Multan, a Sikh city that had fallen under British rule in 1846 after the 1st Anglo-Sikh War (1845-1846). In a dispute over taxation the British ordered his replacement by Sikh Governor, Sirdar Khan Singh, and a British political agent, Lieutenant Patrick Vans Agnew. However, when Agnew arrived at Multan he and his associate, Lieutenant William Anderson, were murdered by an angry mob. Although it is unlikely that Mul Raj ordered the murders, because of them he was forced into open rebellion, so beginning the 2nd Sikh War. When Multan was taken by the British in January 1849 Mul Raj was captured and although spared execution was sentenced to life imprisonment. It was during his incarceration that McCosh photographed him.

https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1962-04-3-294

http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/A/ap_mccosh.htm

https://peoplepill.com/people/john-mccosh/

https://www.kamat.com/database/content/photographers/john_mccosh.htm

MaddyWorks, https://maddyworks.com/john-mccosh/

Surgeon John McCosh, Bengal Medical Establishment, 1852 (c)

Photograph, India, 1852 (c).

McCosh (1805-1885), who joined the Bengal Army as an assistant surgeon in 1831, was one of the first war photographers. He employed the calotype process, the first practicable negative and positive process on paper, patented by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1841. McCosh had an eventful life: the ship on which he was sailing to Tasmania on sick leave was wrecked and he was the only passenger to survive. He saw active service on the North East Frontier of India against the Kols 1832-1833, in Gwalior 1843-1844 (for which he was awarded the Maharajpoor Star to be seen in the portrait), the 2nd Sikh War (1848-1849) and the 2nd Burma War (1852-1853). McCosh also published a number of books and poems before and after his retirement on 31 January 1856.

From an album of 310 photographs, 1848-1853. NAM Accession Number

NAM. 1962-04-3-294 Copyright/Ownership

National Army Museum, Out of Copyright Location

National Army Museum, Study collection Object URL

https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1962-04-3-294

National Army Museum (UK), https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1962-04-3-294

Einzelnachweise

  1. ↑ John Hannavy, „McCosh, John“, S. 911/912, in: John Hannavy (Hrsg.), „Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography“, Routledge-Verlag, New York/ London, 2008, 1630 Seiten, ISBN 978-0-415-97235-2, http://home.fa.utl.pt/~cfig/Anima%E7%E3o%20e%20Cinema/Fotografia/Enciclopedia%20of%20the%2019th%20Century%20Photography.pdf
  2. ↑ Debra Gibney, „War Photography“, S. 1467, in: John Hannavy (Hrsg.), „Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography“, Routledge-Verlag, New York/ London, 2008, 1630 Seiten, ISBN 978-0-415-97235-2, http://home.fa.utl.pt/~cfig/Anima%E7%E3o%20e%20Cinema/Fotografia/Enciclopedia%20of%20the%2019th%20Century%20Photography.pdf
  3. ↑ John Falconer, British Library, „A Biographical Dictionary of 19th Century Photographers in South and South-East Asia“, zitiert in: Lumnious Lint, http://www.luminous-lint.com/app/photographer/John__McCosh/ABCDEF/
  4. ↑ Approved biography for John McCosh Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA), Date last updated: 4. November 2012, in: Luminous Lint, http://www.luminous-lint.com/app/photographer/John__McCosh/ABCDEF/
  5. ↑ „John McCosh was born into a medical family in the Scottish village of Kirkmichael in Ayrshire on the 5th of March 1805. Several brothers also became doctors…“, siehe: John Hannavy, „McCosh, John“, S. 911/912, in: John Hannavy (Hrsg.), „Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography“, Routledge-Verlag, New York/ London, 2008, 1630 Seiten, ISBN 978-0-415-97235-2, http://home.fa.utl.pt/~cfig/Anima%E7%E3o%20e%20Cinema/Fotografia/Enciclopedia%20of%20the%2019th%20Century%20Photography.pdf
  6. ↑ „He saw active service on the north-east frontier of India against the Kol people in 1832–1833.“, PeoplePill, „John McCosh“, https://peoplepill.com/people/john-mccosh/
  7. ↑ „Passengers in History 1836“, An initiative of the South Australian Maritime Museum, „Lady Munro“, https://passengers.history.sa.gov.au/node/929930
  8. ↑ John McCosh, Purser [dt.: Zahlmeister] - „Narrative of the wreck of the Lady Munro, on the desolate Island of Amsterdam, October 1833“, Glasgow 1835
  9. ↑ EdinPhoto, http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/A/ap_mccosh.htm
  10. ↑ EdinPhoto, http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/A/ap_mccosh.htm
  11. ↑ EdinPhoto, http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/A/ap_mccosh.htm
  12. ↑ EdinPhoto, http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/A/ap_mccosh.htm
  13. ↑ EdinPhoto, http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/A/ap_mccosh.htm
  14. ↑ EdinPhoto, http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/A/ap_mccosh.htm
  15. ↑ Kamat Research database, “John McCosh”, https://www.kamat.com/database/content/photographers/john_mccosh.htm; s. a. EdinPhoto, http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/A/ap_mccosh.htm
  16. ↑ EdinPhoto, http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/A/ap_mccosh.htm
  17. ↑ Kamat Research database, “John McCosh”, https://www.kamat.com/database/content/photographers/john_mccosh.htm
  18. ↑ Historic Camera, „Dr John McCosh“, 3. Mai 2020, https://historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium2/pm.cgi?action=app_display&app=datasheet&app_id=3827&
  19. ↑ EdinPhoto, http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/A/ap_mccosh.htm
  20. ↑ Approved biography for John McCosh, Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA), Letzte Aktualisierung: 4. November 2012, Luminous Lint, http://www.luminous-lint.com/app/photographer/John__McCosh/ABCDEF/
  21. ↑ Siehe: John McCosh, „Advice to Officers in India“, 1856, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/McCosh%2C_John_-_Advice_to_Officers_in_India_%281856%29.pdf, S. 8 der PDF-Datei, Frontispiz
  22. ↑ „1856: John McCosh retired from the army“. EdinPhoto, http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/A/ap_mccosh.htm
  23. ↑ John McCosh, „Advice to Officers in India“, 1856, S. 7, Kap. 5. Photography: „I would strongly recommend every assistant-surgeon to make himself a master of photography in all its branches, on paper, on plate glass, and on metallic plates. I have practised it for many years, and know of no extra professional pursuit that will more repay him for all the expense and trouble (and both are very considerable) than this fascinating study—especially the new process by Collodion for the stereoscope. During the course of his service in India, he may make such a faithful collection of representations of man and animals, or architecture and landscape, that would be a welcome contribution to any museum.“
  24. ↑ PeoplePill, https://peoplepill.com/people/john-mccosh/
  25. ↑ Historic Camera, „Dr John McCosh“, 3. Mai 2020, https://historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium2/pm.cgi?action=app_display&app=datasheet&app_id=3827&
  26. ↑ John Hannavy, „McCosh, John“, S. 911/912, in: John Hannavy (Hrsg.), „Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography“, Routledge-Verlag, New York/ London, 2008, 1630 Seiten, ISBN 978-0-415-97235-2, http://home.fa.utl.pt/~cfig/Anima%E7%E3o%20e%20Cinema/Fotografia/Enciclopedia%20of%20the%2019th%20Century%20Photography.pdf
Abgerufen von „https://de.wikiup.org/index.php?title=Benutzer:MYR67/Artikelwerkstatt_John_McCosh&oldid=222697926“