Unidentified sitter

Photographed by John Patrick of Leven in Fife.

Born on born on 16 January 1831, John Patrick initially trained as a baker before becoming a bookseller. For a while he ran his photography studio and his bookselling business in tandem, but in 1866 he gave up the latter altogether in order to concentrate on photography.

'Mr Patrick, Photographer, Leven, has lately disposed of his Bookselling business that he may have more time in order to give to Photography; and in order to carry out with energy and taste the varied requirements of this popular profession, he has Removed to his own property at the Links, where his numerously kind patrons will find pleasanter accommodation than was possible hitherto. The change also enables him to meet an often-expressed wish regarding Equestrian Photography, as he has now ample room, with unobtrusive land or sea scapes, for this class of subjects (Fife Herald, 17 May 1866).

John Patrick died, aged 92, on 19 May 1923 at the home of his daughter at Kennoway in Fife.

'Mr Patrick was widely known in his profession, and in Edinburgh, and outside of these, and by all who knew him he was greatly respected for his upright and genial character, his cultured mind, and his noteworthy artistic taste and accomplishments. He was successful with the brush as well as with the camera; and contributed landscape paintings to the Royal Scottish Academy and other exhibitions. He began his career as a baker in the village of Buckhaven, near which he was born. His literary tastes were even then pronounced, and he took up the business of a bookseller in Leven; and almost at the same time, turned his attention to photography, which was then only beginning to develop from the mechanical stage. [...] Having adopted photography as the work of his life, Mr Patrick removed from Fife to Edinburgh, and soon established a reputation for the reproduction of landscape and of portraiture' (Fife Free Press & Kirkcaldy Guardian, 26 May 1923).