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Military History – South Africa – Europe – England 19th Century
.Article – Online Historic Information | Military
.Page 206
with pictures of the Crimean and American Civil wars, the Boer War of 1899–1902 saw not
only plate photography as previously carried out, but also stereoscopic pictures, telephoto lens work,
amateur roll-film photographs and moving pictures.
On both sides photographers were at work with large-plate cameras mounted on tripods and
with black capes under which they crouched to frame their shots. Commercial photographers, such as
J. E. Middlebrook of Durban, Frank H. Hancox of Kimberley, and, on the Boer side, M. Bennett and
Van Hoepen of Pretoria, recorded life in camp, parades, men standing to arms and, on occasion,
soldiers apparently attacking or under attack. The latter were all, or almost all, posed shots. On some
pictures the names of both Middlebrook and Van Hoepen appear, and certain pictures of Boers in the
field have Middlebrook’s Durban mark on them; the pressures of reporting obviously over-ruled
loyalties to any one particular faction. The Underwood brothers of the United States published, for
door-to-door sale, over 3,000 stereoscopic pictures taken by various photographers whose names are
not known. Photography was also used in surveying in order to produce maps, the task of the British
Royal Engineers. A 5×4-inch twin lens camera made by Newman and Guardia, with a telephoto lens
capability, was used by Lieutenant C. H. Foulkes for this purpose.
The first of two revolutionary changes was the introduction by George Eastman of Rochester,
New York of the Kodak roll-film camera in 1888. Two models of camera were widely available at
the time of the war. The Folding Pocket Kodak, of which about 60,000 were sold between 1898 and
1902, and the Brownie which, between its launch in 1900 and the end of the war, sold 150,000 (both
figures are for sales outside the United States). Not only did this generate a huge number of amateur
and unofficial pictures, but it also gave the professional photographer a chance to take pictures in
action where the cumbersome plate camera was too difficult and dangerous to use.
The second revolution, moving picture, was not to be fully exploited until later wars, but some
moving pictures were taken, for example, of General Sir Redvers Buller. The Biograph machine was
patented in the United States in 1896, enabling relatively satisfactory outdoor, on-the-spot moviemaking. A movie team was sent to Natal with Buller’s army.
See also:
Journalists.
Reference:
Dickson, W. K.-L., The Biograph in Battle: Its Story in the South African War, Related with
Personal Experiences (London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1901); Lee, Emanoel, To the Bitter End
(London, Viking, 1985).
Pietermaritzburg
The capital of Natal Colony. It was not occupied by the Boers during the war. The nearest they came
to Pietermaritzburg was Nottingham Road, some twenty-five miles (40km) to the north during
Commandant-general Piet Joubert’s foray south of the
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