Early professional photographers in Wycombe 1877-1905

Extract of photo showing Mr Starling, photographer

J.P.Starling c1894

From 1877 to 1888 the town seems to have been served by the two photographers, Taunt in Easton St, and Starling in Frogmoor Gardens, except for a brief period in the early 1880s when a Francis Hill, trading at 17 Oxford St, Dovecot Meadow, appears in Kelly's. Taunt continued to operate in Wycombe until 1889, and the last appearance of Starling in the trade directories was in 1905. But in 1888 another newcomer to the town was F.J.Findlow & Co, operating at 28 High Street, then moving to 5 Easton St, and trading for nearly 30 years, last appearing in Kelly's in 1915. The business does not seem to have been advertised in the Bucks Free Press (BFP).

In the late 19^th century the dominant photographer in the town was probably Starling, who employed a team of photographic 'artists' to help in the work. A photograph taken in the mid 1890s shows Mr Starling with his 4 'artists' grouped around him. One such 'artist' was Edward Sweetland, who probably joined Starling in circa1884. In 1898/99 he seems to have been accepted as a partner by Starling, but the partnership lasted only a year or so, until the end of 1899.

In the first issue of the new year 1900, readers of the BFP were assailed by a barrage of advertising. One complete column down the centre of the front page of the newspaper was taken by Starling, who emphasized his experience with ''Established in 1877'' and ''under the distinguished patronage of Her Majesty the Queen'', with a long list of local worthies who presumably had been his clients. As well as landscape photography, Starling also stressed his work for the local chair manufacturers with ''Great care is taken in photographing sample Suites and Chairs, J.P.Starling having had many years experience in producing them for nearly all the leading firms. Special precaution is taken that none but the Owners shall have access to their own designs.'' The next largest ad was by F.J.Findlow, who emphasized his ''Day and Electric Light Studio'', and that the latter was ''fitted with Latest and most Powerful Photographic Arc Lamps invented''.

The smallest ad was by Edward Sweetland, who described himself as a ''Photographic Artist Late of the Firm of Starling and Sweetland''. Children's portraits were described as a specialty, with ''special quotations for Chair Manufacturers.'' His address was the Crown House Studio, Crown Lane (where he lived with his mother and father), but also with a show window at 81 Easton Street. Small the ad may have been, but it was not long before Sweetland's firm was the largest photographer in town. The Sweetland business was so successful, so that in January 1904 Edward was able to pay £3,075 to purchase No. 21 High Street, the White House. And over the next 10 years he spent roughly £320 on improving and making alterations to the building. At this time his photographic business seems to have been undertaken in a detached building at the rear.

So in the early years of the new century three photographers, Starling, Findlow, and Sweetland, were in competition for the town's demand for a photographic service. And this demand was expanding. The town became more prosperous as the chair-making centre of the country, and the manufacturers needed photographs to publicise their products, and their families needed to record their prosperity in photographs.