Ida Gwynne, photographer, Edwardian Gloucester (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Thursday, July 11, 2019, 20:12 (1961 days ago) @ macast

Hi,
I'm guessing you've already seen this (or similar) examples of her work.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Edwardian-1920s-era-Postcard-Attractive-young-lady-called-Ci...

This website claims to have info about her, but as to how much detail, and for what expense, I have no idea.
https://www.cartedevisite.co.uk/photographers-category/photographers/f-to-j/photographe...

---

You ask why she'd become a photographer.

I suggest that was simply because she'd have learnt the skills of the trade from her father, she'd inherited his valuable equipment, and she knew she could make a reasonable living doing it.
As a child in the late 1940s early 50s my half-sister lived with her grandparents in Longhope, her Grandad was Harry Beard "the village photographer". He was in his fifties by then but still took photos to supplement his day-job earnings, and was still using an old-fashioned heavy box camera on a tripod. Despite being very young my half-sister was encouraged to help him with his work, going out and about the village carrying equipment and suchlike, and also back home developing & printing the photos themselves. He used to take photos for all sorts of local occasions eg sports & family events, weddings etc, and also take views of local scenes which were made into postcards and sold at my Aunt's shop in the village. This is of course much later than Ida's time, and after people started buying their own Kodak Box Browmie cameras etc, yet even in these 1950s there was still a demand for his skills and equipment to obtain larger format photos rather than just snaps. So it seems completely logical that if Ida had gained these same skills and equipment some years earlier, well before cameras were available to the masses, then she'd want and be able to make an income from it.

During Harry Beard's earlier career I think he took this photo, in the background is Pound House Longhope, and attached at right is the Beard family home Pound Cottage.
https://forest-of-dean.net/gallery/longhope/mediafiles/l1.jpg

This picture was "taken" by Harry on his own wedding day in 1914.
https://forest-of-dean.net/gallery/longhope/mediafiles/l8.jpg