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Burns, Archibald

Burns, Archibald
Burns, Archibald
Burns, Archibald
About the artist
Name
Burns, Archibald
Biography
Archibald Burns, professional photographer, is first recorded as a member of the Photographic Society of Scotland in 1858. He specialized in landscape and architectural images for a growing tourist market and for publication in books on Edinburgh. In 1868 he published an illustrated book called 'Picturesque Bits from Old Edinburgh', a photographic guide to the Old Town, both documentary and nostalgic in its approach. He often used salted paper to enhance the melancholic look of the images. The Edinburgh Improvement Trust appointed him to record the recently cleared and derelict buildings between the Cowgate and Chambers Street in 1871, thus producing in 26 prints an historic record of an area once densely populated.
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