Redfern
Henry Jasper Redfern (1872-1928; usually referred to as Jasper Redfern)[1] was a photographer, cinematographer, radiographer, showman, and supplier of photographic goods from Sheffield, England.
He began in cinema by filming local events and staging short, often comic sequences,[2] and giving shows of these films in local halls. Later he owned a number of cinemas, including one at the seaside resort of Westcliff-on-Sea (in the south of England, a long way from Sheffield). Eventually his small company was unable to compete with increasingly large and professional cinema companies, and he became a radiographer (at which he already had some skill) in Manchester. He died from cancer attributed to radiation exposure.[1]
Redfern operated a photographic studio,[3] and sold cameras (and other optical goods including opera glasses[4]) marked with his own name; it is unclear whether his company actually made these.
Cameras
- Full-plate folding bellows camera[5]
- Falling-plate detective camera, with adjustable shutter speed and iris diaphragm (in front of the lens).[6]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Jasper Redfern: a much more complete biography of Redfern as cinematographer by Denis Gifford at Who's Who of Victorian Cinema.
- ↑ No doubt incomplete Redfern filmography at the British Film Institute.
- ↑ Portraits offered for sale at Ebay, e.g. item 221585947643.
- ↑ Ebay item 201213801269.
- ↑ Full-plate folding camera attributed to Redfern dated to about 1895, in the Science Museum collection at the National Media Museum, Bradford, UK: no picture.
- ↑ Falling-plate camera (wrongly described as a folding plate camera) offered for sale at Ebay, November 2014 (item 13134692945).
Links
- Fred Holmes Collection; description and list, with biographical notes (pdf); in the National Fairground Archive, at the University of Sheffield. Fred Holmes was a photographer, cinematographer, projectionist and show and cinema manager for Redfern.
- Photographs of Redfern, people watching a bicycle race (staged so that he could film it), his seaside show, and some of his performers; uploaded by John Bradley at British Photographic History
- Album of 4x5-inch photographs of the Sheffield United football team in the 1899 FA Cup, made by Redfern and presented to the club director; sold at auction by Graham Budd Auctions (listed at the LiveAuctioneers.com site).