William Notman’s Photographic Inventions

More than a century before Photoshop, William Notman (1826–1891) found ingenious ways to enhance his photos and fool the eye. Notman arrived in Canada from Scotland in 1856, swiftly establishing himself as Montreal’s most prominent photographer. He was a proficient technician and an enthusiastic inventor of tools and techniques for his photography and was best known for his development of elaborate composite photographs. For more on William Notman read Sarah Parsons’s William Notman: Life & Work.

Sarah Parsons is Associate Professor of Visual Arts and Art History at York University, where she teaches the history and theory of photography and Canadian art. She has published on various aspects of photography and served as editor of Photography after Photography: Gender, Genre, History, a volume of essays by the photo historian and theorist Abigail Solomon-Godeau (Duke University Press, 2017).