page_title: Robert Turnbull Macpherson
section_title: Photography
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Turnbull Macpherson / Photography
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Robert MacPherson (1811-1872) - Roma - Foro e Colonna di Traiano. English: Robert MacPherson (1811-1872) - Rome - Trajan's Forum and column.
context_page_description: Robert Turnbull Macpherson was a Scottish artist and photographer who worked in Rome, Italy, in the 19th century.
context_section_description: In 1851, having failed to achieve notice as a painter, Macpherson turned to the new art of photography, using albumin on glass negatives. By 1856 he had transitioned to collodio-albumin, allowing the easier transport of dry plates. He typically used large-format negatives and long exposure times to attain exceptional detail of Roman architecture, monuments, ruins, landscapes, and sculptures. His work emphasised careful composition of scenes to capture three-dimensional architectural relationships on the two-dimensional photographic medium. Macpherson emphasised the artistic aspects of his photography, stating in 1863 that "I remain a photographer to this day, without any feeling that by doing so I have abandoned art, or have in any way forfeited my claim to the title of artist."
  By the early 1860s, Macpherson's photographic career was near its zenith, with exhibitions in Edinburgh and London. His work received critical acclaim, with "subjects chosen with fine taste and the pictures executed with skill and delicacy."
  Macpherson was the first photographer permitted to photograph inside the Vatican, and in 1863 published Vatican Sculptures, Selected and Arranged in the Order in which they are Found in the Galleries, a guide book to 125 Vatican sculptures featuring woodcut illustrations carved by his wife from his photographs.
  Although resident in Rome, Macpherson remained an active member of the Photographic Society of Scotland. However, The Scotsman newspaper noted in his obituary that he was "the father of photography in the Eternal City [Rome]."
caption: Forum of Trajan
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