Getty Museum

[Ayr Presbytery]

Date

1843–1847

Medium

Salted paper print from a paper negative

Department

Photographs

Institution

Getty Museum

Even though the subjects had to remain completely motionless for the length of time it took to make an exposure, David Hill and Robert Adamson achieved a sense of apparent spontaneity by skillful positioning of the camera. This image is remarkable for capturing as many as sixteen individuals. The group looks away from the camera, since the photograph was intended as a study for Hill's large painting *The Disruption Picture,*in which the ministers focused their gaze on the signing ceremony depicted at the center of the canvas.

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