{"id":32450,"date":"2025-10-02T01:03:28","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T05:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/?p=32450"},"modified":"2025-09-29T01:10:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T05:10:19","slug":"essence-of-beauty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/essence-of-beauty\/","title":{"rendered":"essence of beauty"},"content":{"rendered":"
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James Esson, photographer<\/p><\/div>\n

Toronto<\/strong>. James Esson founded his photographic studio \u00a0in the tiny village about an hour today west of Toronto. The village of Preston, Ontario, since absorbed in larger communities, had a population of some 1,400 souls in 1884.<\/p>\n

The history of the studio is told in an illustrated article by Markus Boost, assisted \u00a0by Stan White. The article is dedicated to the late Martin Bass. It begins, “It would take great courage to build a lavish photographic studio and portrait gallery in little more than the village of Preston, Ontario which, in 1884, had about 1400 inhabitants \u2013 but this is what photographer James Esson did.<\/p>\n

“The press described Esson and his studio thus: ‘Mr. Esson\u2019s reputation is continental.\u00a0\u00a0Among his patrons are scores of people in this\u00a0city, in Montreal, as far west as Winnipeg and\u00a0from various quarters in the United States. He\u00a0is undoubtedly a genius among photographers.<\/p>\n

“Some years ago, Mr. Esson built one of the\u00a0handsomest business blocks in Preston in\u00a0which he has artistically arranged his Atelier.\u00a0His reception-room is a model of good taste\u00a0and originality. On the walls are hung specimens of his magnificent work, including many\u00a0novelties such as are not seen outside of the\u00a0largest cities and very rarely in these.<\/p>\n

“A\u00a0Cecilian from Heintzman and Co. furnishes\u00a0music and helps to make the waiting periods of\u00a0visitors pleasant and delightful. The dressing\u00a0rooms are luxuriously furnished, and the operating studio is equipped with the most modern\u00a0photographic apparatus and accessories.<\/p>\n

“Esson\u2019s Atelier had two advantages: the proximity of the\u00a0towns of Hespeler and Galt, and that Preston was a health spa.\u00a0People were very health conscious in the latter part of the\u00a0Nineteenth Century. Consumption was rife and outbreaks of\u00a0infectious and contagious deseases were still prevalent. Those\u00a0with money, took every opportunity to get out of the cities.<\/p>\n

“Sulphur springs were reputed to be advantageous to health.\u00a0Three grand and numerous smaller hotels, hostels, and boarding\u00a0houses etc., catered to a continuous flow of people from out of\u00a0town who came ‘to take the waters.'” …<\/p>\n

You can see all of this fine article in the issue 25-2 pdf file on the free members only DVD\/thumb drive. See MEMBERSHIP above or Membership at right (skip the postal strike) to join. \u00a0Any questions? Drop Lilianne a line at member@phsc.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Visit our latest 2025 Event this month – our famous fall fair on October 19th, 2025. Details are in the PHSC News newsletter (issue 25-7<\/a>). We will be posting the details here later this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto. James Esson founded his photographic studio \u00a0in the tiny village about an hour today west of Toronto. The village of Preston, Ontario, since absorbed in larger communities, had a population of some 1,400 souls in 1884. The history of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1944],"tags":[400,5,220],"class_list":["post-32450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-fair","tag-photographer","tag-photos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32450"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32456,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32450\/revisions\/32456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}