The Winsome Collection curated by Camilla d’Antoine, is a treasury of rare and other-worldly 19th Century hand-coloured photographic glass slides, restored and transformed into large scale artworks. Camilla’s slide collection began in 2017 after stumbling across the Magic Lantern slides in an antique store overseas. With a background in fine art, photography and design Camilla has become quite the enthusiast and her collections spans across many continents, subjects and decades. Her glass slides are on permanent display at her gallery Artwrk. in Red Hill, Victoria and can be viewed alongside the prints and her other collection of vintage oil paintings.
The lantern slide has its origins in the 17th century optical viewing devices which came to be known as “Magic Lanterns”. The earliest slides consisted of hand-painted images on glass, projected by itinerant showmen to amuse their audience. This was followed by the photographic slide in 1848. Hand tinting of the slides was a job executed primarily by women for extra income, often at night by the light of an oil lamp.
With slides up to 150 years old, this original collection journeys through astonishing moments of our rich history - from the Great Sphinx of Giza and British Bird Ornithology through to the storytelling slides that made up Victorian melodramas.
Lost illuminations have been found, as these images find life and scale in a century well beyond their incarnation.
Limited edition photographs are printed on archival cotton rag paper and are available in custom sizes and framing options.
