1885 Hunter & Sands photographic gun

One of the earliest gun cameras was manufactured by Hunter & Sands way back in 1885! The company was founded in 1874 and initially known as Hunter & Sands before changing it to Sands & Hunter in 1883 . The company traded right up to the late 1950s. Patents issued in the 1880s were in the names of C. Sands, H.C. Sands and John James Hunter. The longer, two-handed design meant it could take a steadier image than the Revolver Camera of the time. It could also take 18 images before being reloaded, a significant increase from the four image limit of the Revolver Camera. What makes this interesting to me is that both take inspiration from gun technology in attempts to improve the camera’s abilities. From the 1880s, hand-held exposures became possible for the first time because of the introduction of gelatin-silver bromide emulsion plates. For the first time, the photographer could snatch a picture of a person without his/her agreement or participation. With the snapshot camera anyone at any time could be the victim of an embarrassing or incriminating picture. And the amateur knew and capitalised on this fact. It became the rage to candidly capture unsuspecting people in awkward poses. In that regard nothing much has changed since the 1800s.

A mobile photographer could ignore the restraints of common decency and good manners. The public retaliated by writing irate letters to the press, calling for a law banning photography in public, forming vigilante groups to "protect" decent citizens from the outrages against proper behaviour perpetrated by what they considered "smug" photographers even going so far as to advocate violence against their equipment, and person. Photographers fought back. in journals encouraging the enthusiastic amateur to "take the precaution to carry a thick stick as part of their equipment, otherwise they may find their cameras reduced to a wreck in consequence of their inability to defend themselves. At that time the growing fascination for snapshots of strangers had given rise to a vociferous anti-photography movement in the early 1880s. Sands' rifle stocked camera gun, aimed at people in public, was not likely to dispel the growing notion that photographers were callous, uncaring aggressors. "One writer advocated its use stating "that a small revolver may on occasion be a not altogether undesirable addition to the kit; or perhaps some enterprising inventor will combine 'a shooting instrument with a shutter. " A means to intimidate the public back then perhaps?

With monopod of the 1800's?

To take a picture with this camera, it is held like a rifle and aimed through conventional gun sights, the image being viewed on a ground glass screen. One of the two cylinders behind the barrel holds 18 circular plates 1.5 inches (3.8cm) in. A plate is passed from the cylinder to the barrel where it can be exposed by operating a shutter. The exposed plate is then transferred to the second cylinder by rotating a circular plate.

A journal of the time, pointed out that its "extremely murderous appearance might cause the user to be subject to rather unceremonious treatment if he were endeavouring to secure a portrait of an Irish landlord or of the Queen. ' (The Photographic News, 9 December 1881, p. 588. This report also contains a clear drawing of the photographic gun.