A renowned and very accomplished photographer of the early twentieth century, who took portraits of nobility including politicians, prime ministers and kings was the subject of the talk at last night’s NDPS meeting. 

What is surprising (for that time) is that the photographer was a woman and her work had been largely forgotten until recently.  Olive Edis set up her first studio in Sheringham, her childhood holiday “home” but she quickly became recognised as a photographer of note by high society in London. 

Clive Dunn, NDPS member gave an inspiring illustrative talk of Olive’s life and followed up with the film, “Fisherman to Kings, The Forgotten Photographs of Olive Edis”.  The film, written and directed by Clive Dunn, featured Rankin, the renowned fashion and portrait photographer, tracing back the history of Olive Edis and some of her work, her design and patent of the Diascope and her innovative use of Autochrome printing based on red, green, and blue potato starches to produce colour images.

Olive not only produced portraits of the rich and famous but loved taking images of fisherman back in Sheringham.  All subjects were treated with the same respect and attention to detail which brought out the personality of the sitter in the photograph. 

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