'Image of Jamaica' opens at Tryall Club
Published:Saturday | April 21, 2012 | 12:00 AM
SANDY BAY, Hanover:The Tryall Club will play host to the opening reception on April 23 for 'An Image of Jamaica 1891' exhibition, which features photographs by Valentine & Sons of Dundee, Scotland, and wooden sculptures by Clifford Osbourne.
"While the original large-format glass plate negatives for these photographs were destroyed in 1961, a small number of the original prints survived. Because they were well-preserved albumen contact prints, the scans we made from them contain a significant amount of detail and subtlety," said Patrick Montgomery, owner of the Caribbean Photo Archive and curator of the show.
"The resulting new prints are made on Hannemuhle Bamboo archival-grade fine-art paper display in rich black and white - the natural beauty and unspoiled environment that existed in pre-tourist Jamaica at the time."
The Caribbean Photo Archive has created a fine art edition of a selection of photographs, which will be on display and available for sale at The Tryall Club from April 23 to 28, 2012. A limited edition portfolio containing eight of the photographs; a map of Jamaica from 1893, and a reprint of the book World's Fair, Jamaica at Chicago will also be available.
'Awakening Jamaica'
In 1891, with its economy in the doldrums, a group of Jamaican businessmen calling themselves the 'Awakening Jamaica' committee hired the studio of Valentine & Sons of Dundee, Scotland, to travel to Jamaica and create a photographic portrait of the island as a commercial and tourist paradise. Valentine & Sons, in business since 1851, was a prominent maker of landscape photographs and travel views.
Thirty per cent of all proceeds from the exhibition will go to The Tryall Fund - a non-profit organisation committed to supporting education and health initiatives in the parish of Hanover.
The exhibition will also feature the work of sculptor Clifford Osbourne, who developed an interest in carving at an early age and in 1987 was awarded a Presidential Training Scholarship through the United States Agency for International Development.