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| Glass plate negative by R.J. Arnold. | El Paso de Robles Area Historical Society |
February 24 – December 31, 2015
An exhibit of vintage photographs produced from glass plate
negatives dating from the late 1800’s. The work of photographer Richard J.
Arnold whose studio was located on Monterey Street in San Luis Obispo,
California from 1886 to 1892.
Evolution of the Exhibit:
In 2011 the El Paso de Robles Area Historical Society
received over 1,400 19th-centry glass plate photographic negatives; the largest
collection of historic items received by the Society to date. The collection,
the work of photographer R.J. Arnold, was donated by Jacqueline D. Marie in
memory of Randal Gene Young. In April of 2012 Brother Lawrence Scrivani S.M.,
archivist for the Cooper Molera Adobe in Monterey, California, came to Paso
Robles to instruct Historical Society volunteers in the proper methods for
cleaning, preserving, storing and cataloging the glass plate negative
collection. A group of dedicated volunteers then set to work in the basement
office of the Carnegie to clean and catalog the negatives, which had been
stored in less than ideal conditions for many years.
In December 2012, Anthony Lepore, Master of Fine Arts, Yale
University, came to Paso Robles and spent several days going through the
negatives, carefully making the selections that would become the basis for the
Historical Society’s first exhibit SHARED HISTORIES: R.J. Arnold’s Portraits of
the Central Coast. The fragile glass plate negatives were scanned in high
resolution allowing us to produce large prints. At the time of their creation
these negatives would only have been printed at their actual size (5″ x 8″) but
current technology allows us to look even deeper into these astonishing
portraits. The collection of photographs also points to the diversity of native
and immigrant cultures prevalent in San Luis Obispo County during the second
half of the 19th Century. In November 2014, Mr. Lepore returned to Paso Robles
and made the selections for this current exhibit.
Through the years the identities of the individuals pictured
in the exhibit have been lost leaving us to speculate about their personal
stories and what life was like in this area over 125 years ago.
Many of the original glass plate negatives were damaged or
in poor condition when received. The decision was made to print the photographs
for the exhibit with these imperfections as they represent the current state of
the plates and allows us to view them in their proper historical context.
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| Glass plate negative by R.J. Arnold. | El Paso de Robles Area Historical Society |
Richard J. Arnold
Richard J. Arnold was born on June 28, 1856 in England and died in Monterey on May 19,
1929. Mr. Arnold had photographic studios in several areas of central California in addition to
San Luis Obispo including Monterey, Santa Barbara and Alameda.
Arnold’s most significant contribution to early California photography was his choice to
photograph all sorts of people, not limiting his subjects to paying clients. While most
commercial photographers at the time photographed the wealthy and elite on commission,
Arnold did not limit the diversity of his subjects based on their financial means. He created
one of the largest and earliest portraits of the early Latino community in California. While he
took commissions and ran a successful studio he was endlessly drawn to all types of people and
his body of work presents a prescient vision of California’s cultural diversity. What also make
his photographs so important and timeless is the empathy with which he connects to his sitters.
There is an openness in their gaze and an ease in their gesture.
The original prints that Arnold produced during his lifetime would have been cropped into the
traditional Victorian oval, which was highly favored at the time and tended to focus on faces
and torsos. In this exhibition we have printed the full plates revealing the surprises and details
of Arnold’s photographic process and giving us a glimpse into his studio.
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| Glass plate negative by R.J. Arnold. | El Paso de Robles Area Historical Society |
