In Erwartung des Dampfbootes

Boats, Farming, Harvesting, Fishing, Genre, Harbors, wharves, Portrait: group, Women: Occupational

Dimensions

Image Dimensions: 19.4 x 26.9 cm : Japan paper
Support Dimensions: 48.1 x 35.5 cm

Title:  Waiting for the Boats, photographed by Sawyer in 1889.

*  This plate one of nine photographs listed on the contents page of the portfolio bearing an asterisk: Die mit * versehenen Bilder find Aufnahmen von Fachphotographen, meaning it was taken by a professional photographer.

Original comment on this plate from the Vienna Camera Club journal:

Blatt XXI: „In Erwartung des Dampfbootes” von Lydell Sawyer in Newcastle. Ein sehr lebendiges Bild mit vielen Figuren, die sich alle durch grosse Natürlichkeit in Miene und Geberde und durch gute Gruppirung auszeichnen.” 1.

We thank village of Wordsley (England) native Geoff Lowe for graciously providing PhotoSeed with additional background for this photograph:

Waiting for the Boats is taken on the fish quay at North Shields, a short distance from where Sawyer was born. The women (“fish wives” as they were known locally) are waiting for the days catch, ready to gut and process the fish. If you look carefully at the sky above the shed on the right you can see a tall tower emerging from mist, this is the High Light which has to be aligned with the Low Light to make a safe entry from the sea into the River Tyne. 2.

1. Photographische Rundschau: Centralblatt fur Amateurphotographie: Edited by Charles Scolik: Volume IV: December, 1891: Published by Verlag Wilhelm Knapp: Halle a. S.: p. 441

2. Email correspondence with PhotoSeed site owner David Spencer: January, 2012

Original copy for this entry posted to Facebook on October 5, 2011:

English photographer Lyddell Sawyer’s arrangement of 16 people- waiting on a wharf for the return of boats loaded down with fish, is strictly improvised but with an effective, pictorial result. I do feel sorry for the woman with back to camera at right corner of frame however. Her one-handed sustained pose was surely difficult to maintain.