Heritage Lottery Funding Bid

 

Progress

Hours of discussion, paperwork, statements of interest, meetings etc are starting to come together for Winters. We had a hunch there would be some interest based on the amazing support we got from the public during last years Heritage Open Days. There are of course no guarantees but we are hearing the right noises going in to this final stage of application.

When will we know?

Our full complete application is submitted in two weeks and we should have an answer by July. Our thoughts? We can't help but dream big!

Over the side entrance - three 'Ws' and 1867

The dream!

We will need your help to turn the dreams in to reality. We hope to dip our toe in the water with an archiving work room and bring those plate negatives back to life but this is just the beginning. It is developing 'Friends of Winters' that will be the foundation of things to come. We need a body of people who want to be active in restoring, conserving and developing every aspect of our heritage with emphasis on the building (which already has a grade 2 listing) and access to the public.

The ceiling cornicing on the left is currently hidden by a lower false ceiling. Wouldn't it be lovely to have all these architectural details revealed?

Outcomes...

Will it be a museum? A center for study? A center for learning? Is it important to 'travel back in time' and realise a museum studio; to catalogue all the images onsite; to transfer skills and knowledge of traditional photography? We believe that all these things are important, but you will have to drive the project (with our full support) whilst we concentrate on the day-to-day running of the business and our lovely 21st century customers.
We are hugely grateful to our current list of volunteers offering their help. Do get in touch if you are also interested in cataloguing and archiving. However, also let us know if you would like something to really get your teeth into. Do you have a passion for heritage and / or photography? May be you have some project management experience, or have worked on similar projects in the past? We want to hear from you please!

 How many feet have trodden these stairs. Look at the curve in the lead where 150 years of wear is showing.

 

Get in touch

Email us on office@wwwinter.co.uk to let us know. There is no commitment at this stage. We are simply putting together a pool of interested parties. who will love and cherish this place as we do :-)

Winter's in Artsbeat Magazine

We were visited last month by the rather brilliant Amanda Penman of Artsbeat Magazine who has written a lovely article on the business and the 'behind-the-scenes' of the history of the company often invisible behind the running of a modern portrait photography studio.
We have already had feedback from the feature with offers of help for the project-in-waiting that is our photo archive. Our Heritage Lottery Funding bid is now being processed (fingers crossed) and if successful we will be able to move into phase one. This will involve renovation of the old colour dark room and kitting it out as a workroom for archiving. At this point we will need you! We are really grateful for the offers so far but do keep them coming in; whether it's a casual interest in photography and / or history or you have previous experience of a similar project we promise to keep you in tea and coffee!

Owner and MD, Hubert Weston King, wanted to say a big thanks to both Amanda, and to Nick Lockett for photographing here for the magazine.
Behind Hubert you can see a small indication of the archives held here. Each box is filled with negatives, some portraits, some from industrial work. Times this by many times over and you start to see the nature of the task ahead of us.

Contact us by email on office@wwwinter.co.uk if you would like to get involved, and follow our Friends of Winters Facebook page for regular updates and snippets of the goodies we come across.

Louisa and Angela upstairs in the old daylight retouching room with examples of Victorian portraiture. It is this part of the archives that we would like to make more accessible to the public via a small museum.

Quarter Plate Studio Portraits

Butter Wouldn't Melt!

Take a look at these two cherubs.
I picked them up off the top a box in the cellar today. One of so many captured here in the studio over the years. It's difficult to date these but I'm hazarding a guess at 1940's to 1950's based on clothes and hairstyles. Later than this, and we would be moving into colour.
You can make out the word 'Peach' at the bottom of the image (most likely the familly name) along with other reference details. These were written directly onto the plate and relate to an entry somewhere in the ledger books.
The black blob (for want of a better word) on the left is where the emulsion has peeled away but it is a testament to traditional photography methods that the image remains almost wholly intact: how are you old CD's holding up?

The Lightest Touch

Another one from the pile - this image has got me hooked.
Never mind airbrushing or Photoshop - look at the softness of the skin.

The light is gentle but exacting - the modelling highlights his features, his expression is serious but relaxed. What I find really exciting about this one though is the hand retouching directly on to the plate. Retouching was predominantly done by women (perhaps the extra colour receptors in our eyes make us more adept with detail?) Imagine the women working in a row in the daylight retouching rooms at the top of the building bent over these small portraits.
These images I am sharing are all on quarter plate glass negatives. A 'whole' plate is 8in x 6in so these are 4in x 3in, about the size of a polaroid. At this small size the retoucher had to work their magic knowing it would be enlarged when printed, magnifying their handiwork.
And what was this handiwork like? If you flip the plate over and tilt it to the light you can see!

The swirls around the head are brush marks in the emulsion, the details that interest me are the marks on the face. With a bit of photoshop magic you can get a better idea of what is going on...

These pencil marks provide two services: the lighten areas, and they smooth out lines. Dark circles under your eyes? No problem! Deep set frown lines? Not any more! The head in the right hand side image is about to scale so you can see the accuracy needed.
And that's how you make a classic soft portrait without softening the focus - no need for a stocking over the lens :-)

Ghostly goings on...

Capturing your spirit?
It is of course a photographer's job to capture people forever. It enables us to hold onto happy memories when loved ones are no longer around. But maybe photographs really do capture a bit of your soul?
Being in such a well used old building it's impossible to feel the presence of all those who have walk up the stairs to the studio over the last 147 years.

Winter House does in fact have a very homely feel, a testament to being in the King family for so long, but there is the odd trace that we might not be alone. A few customers have seen a well dressed Victorian lady descending the staircase but the current team regularly experience the strong and unmistakeable smell of woodbines.

To old friends...
We like to think it is old Charlie - Charles Henry Barson, with woodbine in hand. Charlie worked at Winters as  photographer and print er from 1928 until his retirement in 1981. However, he remained a part of the team spending a day a week sorting through old negatives, using his knowledge and experience to identify people, places and dates.
In typical work mate banter he assured his colleagues that if there was an afterlife he would let them know. On returning to the office from his funeral in 1989, staff mused on where Charlie was now, and to the second an almighty bang came from the old postage scales as if a great weight had been dropped on them. There was no explanation for the noise so we like to think it was Charlie saying goodbye :-)

Oldest Photography Studio?

Just exactly how old?

There has been much debate here about whether we can claim to be the oldest continuously operating photography studio in the UK, if not the world. We can say with absolute certainty that the studio that we operate from today opened in 1867 - pretty close but not the oldest. However, the business itself is another matter.

The other side of the Midland Road

Emmanuel Nicolas Charles had a photo studio on the other side of Midland Road from 1856, which he ran until his death in 1863, at the young age of 36. During this time he had taken on an assistant, Walter William Winter.

On Charles' death, the business passed into the hands of his widow, Sarah Charles (nee Ball)* and her three young children. By Spring of 1864, Winter had married Sarah and taken over the business. It should be noted that at the time Sarah would have been 33, and Winter just 22.

The Alexandra Rooms

From 1864 Walter William Winter was advertising the business as W. W. Winter, late E. N. Charles, still operating from 2 Midland Road. However, by 1867 Winter had seen his purpose built photo studios, designed by architect Henry Isaac Stevens, open for business.

Victorian women in business?

 *If you have any information about Sarah Charles, do get in touch. We are particularly interested to know whether Sarah ran the business for the period between the death of her first husband and her marriage to Winter.

Welcome from W W Winter

Hello! And thank you for your interest!
W W Winter is contemporary photo studio in Derby, UK. However, we have a few surprises up our sleeves.

A Unique History of Photography
There has been a photography studio in Midland Road, Derby since at least 1857. This was owned by Monsieur Emmanuel Nicholas Charles  who employed our founder, William Walter Winter. Winter eventually took over the business and in 1867, he opened his new purpose built studio directly across the road. The business has been here ever since.

A Family Tree
In 1896, William Henry King joined the business as a photographic assistant and by 1910, he and Henry Bernard Sheppard formed a partnership buying the business. The company has been in the King family ever since.

 Three generations of the King family. William Herny King (left), Hubert Weston King as an apprentice (centre) and Austin King (right).

What Went on at Winter's
What this means in that W W Winter is a photo studio with a rather exciting past. Whilst the studio is open throughout the week for contemporary photography, photo restoration and framing, we also have some interesting goings-on in the background.
This year we took part in National Heritage Open Days. It was thrilling to see so many members of the public taking delight in what we know to be something a bit special. As a consequence of this we are in the process of a Heritage Lottery Funding bid with a view to cataloging our extensive archive of glass negatives and allowing public access to this rich history of Derbyshire.
We also have ourselves an artist in residence, Debbie Cooper, on whose progress we will be keeping you posted.