To highlight the virtues of the Kodak’s roll film cameras, George Davison persuaded several of his photographic friends to try them so that their results could be used for advertising or promotion. Among those taking part were Paul Martin, Eustace Calland, J. Craig Annan and, notably, Frank M. Sutcliffe, whose great enthusiasm led him to try out virtually every new Kodak camera until 1906. [1]

From the introduction… This edition de luxe of 14 photographs by eminent photographers is a souvenir of the Eastman Photographic Exhibition, held at the New Gallery, Regent Street, London, from 27th October to 16th November, 1897. It is aimed chiefly to exemplify some of the pictorial applications of the Kodak and film photography. The pictures, without exception, are Kodak film pictures, and the assortment is specially arranged to illustrated a few of the various classes of subjects which can all be effectively exploited by Kodak photography. Landscape, seascape, architectural pictures, portraiture pure and simple done at home, portrait head and shoulders, portraiture of three-quarter figure, portraiture of the whole figure with drawing-room surroundings, will be found pictorially exemplified in this little volume. We wish to express our hearty thanks to the eminent photographers who have kindly lent us their film negatives, from which the fine reproductions have been made by Mr. J. Craig Annan, of Messrs. Annan & Sons.

The photogravures are small pictorial gems by some of the leading photographers of the day.

Some photographers shot ‘day for night’, as here, where George Davison made a short daylight exposure and printed it darker. He explained that this turned a ‘prosaic’ photograph into one whose ‘special atmospheric conditions’ made ‘very pictorial effects’. [2]