Apparently from Virginia, Birt Acres appeared out of nowhere in Britain aged 35, without a trace of his former life. Yet immediately he became a prominent figure in the late Victorian photographic world. He soon teamed up with Robert Paul to make a moving picture camera and then shot the first commercial films in Britain in spring 1895, in parallel with the work of the Lumière brothers in France, before repeating this in Germany. His innovations included being the first to establish a dedicated venue for watching films, to give a Royal Command Performance of moving pictures, to create screen advertising, and to design a home movie camera.
A disdain for showbusiness led to Acres squandering the commercial opportunities he created, and initiated the erasure of his remarkable story. From early in the twentieth century, film historians have consistently underestimated and undervalued his achievements.
In this book, for the first time, we see a detailed and compelling portrait of Birt Acres, with substantial new research on his early work in moving pictures and on the careers of his associates, leading directly to new interpretations of the importance of this elusive pioneer. It draws on a wealth of fresh sources, with a massively expanded filmography supporting this re-evaluation. Written by three specialists in early film history, this volume significantly revises the received story of Birt Acres as a photographer and film-maker, at the same time casting new light on the beginnings of cinema in Britain.
Finding Birt Acres. The Rediscovery of a Film Pioneer
Deac Rossell, Barry Anthony and Peter Domankiewicz
University of Exeter Press, 2025
336 Pages, 116 Black & white illustrations
£90. Discount code for a 30 per cent discount: ACRES30
See: https://www.exeterpress.co.uk/products/finding-birt-acres
Comments
I am one of the authors of the book and thought that members of BPH might be interested to know that in the biographical section - and elsewhere - we deal considerably with the photographic world of the 1880s and 1890s: the photographic societies, the competing businesses, the many publications, the studios, the inventions, the endless squabbles. This was the world that Birt Acres knew intimately as both a photographer and the manager of multiple companies, but it is not something I've read much about previously. The book also covers the production of celluloid as a photographic material about which, again, there is little written - although, of course, the central focus is on film-making. Whilst the price is out of the reach of most pockets (no word on a paperback yet) you could always ask your library to purchase it...