User:Janebnkone/sandbox

Janet Mann (Jessie) (20 January 1805 - 12 April 1867) was a pioneer in photography, who has been called the world's first female photographer.

Early life
Janet Mann was born in Perth, Scotland and lived opposite the famous Scottish photographer David Octavius Hill. Her mother was Sarah Laidlaw, and her father was Alexander Mann, a housepainter. Jessie grew up wiht her older sisters and brother in Watergate, Perth. In 1839 she and her two sisters moved to Edinburgh to stay with her brother.

Career
In 1842 she moved to lodgings near Rock House, on Calton Hill which was where David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson had their photographic studio. She became an assistant to David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, probably working on photographic processing and printing. Hill was an established painter who collaborated with Robert Adamson, who was a expert photographer using early photographic techniques. Miss Mann was employed to help them photograph the 450 ministers of the Church of Scotland who broke away from the church to establish the Free Church of Scotland. This was known as the Great Disruption.

She worked there until Adamson died in 1848. In a letter to Hill, the Scottish painter James Naysmith refers to Janet as " refers to ‘the thrice worthy Miss Mann, that most skilful and zealous of assistants’ It is believed that the partnership of Hill and Adamson's prodigious output was made possible by her assistance. Photographs were taken when neither Hill or Adamson were present, which are attributed to her.  In particular of King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony who visited Scotland in 1844.  As a result she was included as a pioneer in the 2016 exhibition at the London's Tate Gallery.