The Scottish photographic partnership formed in 1843 by David Octavius Hill (b. Perth, 1802; d. Edinburgh, 17 May 1870) and Robert Adamson (b. St Andrews, 26 April 1821; d. St Andrews, 18 Jan 1848) lasted little more than four years, from June 1843-1847, but is one of the most remarkable associations in photographic history. Their complementary aesthetic and technical skills achieved results with the primitive calotype process that have served as a standard and challenge to later photographers.

Prior to his photographic endeavors, Hill was best known as a landscape painter and book illustrator specializing in Scottish scenes. He began his artistic career at Perth Academy and subsequently studied painting at the School of Design in Edinburgh in 1818. Soon after he began exhibiting and was elected secretary of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1830. By contrast, Adamson’s interest in photography arose from his aptitude in science and mechanics. Prevented from pursuing an engineering career due to uncertain health, he turned to photography and in 1843 opened a professional photography studio in Edinburgh after being introduced to William Henry Fox Talbot’s calotytpe process, patented in 1841.

Over the course of their partnership, Hill and Adamson produced over 3,000 photographs. With few exceptions, they concentrated on portrait and group photography. Alongside achievements made in portraiture, their series on the fishing families of the village of Newhaven, Edinburgh remains one of their most notable efforts and is today regarded as an early example of social documentary photography.

Despite critical praise, the two only achieved limited financial success. After Adamson’s sudden death in 1848, Hill was unable to find a suitable partner and returned to painting. In 1869, he sold the contents of their studio to the photographer Thomas Annan (1829-1887). It was Annan’s son, James Craig Annan, (1864-1946) who renewed interest in Hill and Adamson’s work by exhibiting their photographs in England and abroad at the end of the 19th century and producing photogravures from their original negatives that were included in Alfred Stieglitz’s Camera Work from 1905-12. Hill and Adamson’s inventive compositions and romantic, painterly portraits were quickly embraced by Pictorialist photographers in England and the United States and continue to be renowned today.

Retrospectives of Hill and Adamson’s work have been held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1941); Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatchewan, which travelled to Edmonton Art Gallery, Alberta, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, and Art Gallery of Ontario (1987-88); and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris (1993). More recently, two major retrospectives have been organized by the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, which holds the largest collection of their photographs and negatives: Facing the Light (2002) and A Perfect Chemistry (2017).

Their work can be found at the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh; University of Glasgow Library; National Portrait Gallery, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Musée d’Orsay, Paris; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Art Institute of Chicago; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Cleveland Museum of Art; and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among others.