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Les origines (1816-1895)

James Collings est installé à Weston-super-Mare, depuis 1837 ou 1838, comme fabricant de chaussures. Son fils aîné, Henry, se consacre à sa vocation de vicaire et a quitté sa famille (recensement 1871). Le deuxieme enfant, Charles Nossiter Collings est intégré à l'entreprise de son père, vers 1867. Le troisième fils, après son mariage, quitte Weston-super-Mare pour s'installer à Camberwell, alors dans la banlieue londonienne, comme chef-imprimeur (recensement 1881), puis comme photographe (recensement 1891). En 1885, il devient l'associé de William Friese Greene. Après le décès de James Collings, en 1888, William Edward reprend l'entreprise familiale, sous le nom de " James Collings & Son ", jusqu'en 1904.

Weston-super-Mare Gazette, and General Advertiser, 28 décembre 1861, p. 1.	Weston-super-Mare Gazette, and General Advertiser, 12 octobre 1867, p. 4.	Weston Mercury, 18 juillet 1885, p. 1

Arthur, Albert Collings, le dernier fils de James Collings, est associé à l'entreprise familiale probablement vers 1885 - le nom " James Collings & Sons " semble l'indiquer - avant son mariage, en 1887, avec Keturah, Anne Beedle.

Il rejoint la " Friese Greene & Collings " constituée en 1885. Outre le studio de Bath, de nouveaux locaux sont ouverts à Londres (69, New Bond Street, 92 Piccadilly et 100 Westbourne), Plymouth, Clifton et Hove (Brighton).  Finalement, la société est dissoute, d'un commun accord, le 1^er mai 1888 :

NOTICE is hereby given, that the Partnership hitherto existing between us the undersigned, Arthur Albert Collings, James Whyte Collings, and William Friese Greene, under the firm of Friese Greene and Collings, carrying on business at 69, New Bond-street 92, Piccadilly, 100 and 110, Westbourne-grove, London, 69, Western-road, Brighton, and 34, Gay-street, Bath, as Photographers, was, on the 1st day of May, J888, dissolved by mutual consent. The business at 69, Westernroad, Brighton, will, in future be carried on by Arthur Albert Collings on his sole account, that of 69, New Bond -street, London, by Arthur Albert Collings and James Whyte Collings on their joint account, and thai at 92, Piccadilly and 100 and 110, Westbourne-grove London, and 34, Gay-street, Bath, by William Friese Greene on his sole account.— Dated the 26th day of October, 1888.
Arthur Albert Collings.
James Whyte Collings.
William Friese Greene.

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The London Gazette, Londres, 2 novembre 1888, p. 5964.

Les partenaires vont ainsi se répartir les locaux photographiques. Arthur, Albert Collings reprend seul l'affaire de Brighton, et, en association avec son frère, les studios londoniens. William Friese Greene, quant à lui, conserve celui de Bath avec son nouvel associé, M. Simpson. Celui de Clifton trouve un successeur et rouvre sous le nom de T.C. Willway's Studio (Western Daily Press, 7 août 1891, p. 4).

Friese Greene & Collings, (c. 1886) photo carte-de-visite  ©Sussex PhotoHistory	Whyte-Collings Ltd (c. 1889) photo carte-de-visite © Sussex PhotoHistory

En 1892, la "Whyte-Collings Ltd" est mise en liquidation. C'est vers cette époque qu'Arthur, Albert Collings prend le nom d' "Esmé Collings" et, à partir de 1894, ses photographies sont reproduites par la presse, dans des revues comme The Sketch ou The Graphic où ses portraits féminins sont particulièrement à l'honneur. Son studio photographique se trouve alors à Bond Street :

Mr. A. Esmé Collings has arrived at his studio, Lyric Mansion, 175, Bond-street.

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Morning Post, 9 mai 1895, p. 5.

Le cinématographe (1896-1897) 

Dans le cadre de ses activités de photographe, Esmé Collings va montrer un intérêt pour les vues animées aussi soudain que fugace. Grâce au témoignage de James Williamson, nous savons qu'il va utiliser un appareil de prise de vues mis au point par Alfred Darling :

Later in that year [1897], however, I discovered Alfred Darling, and found that he was the source of all the cameras and appliances, which had enabled Esmé Collings and G. A. Smith to accomplish their work. And I am bound to admit that as far as I am concerned it was Darling's ingenuity in carrying out our ideas that made work in those early days at all possible, for we were thrown upon our own resources entirely, and were confronted by innumerable difficulties in working cut and perfecting our apparatus. Darling made the first rotary perforator, I believe, which made perforating easy work. He afterwards designed a camera which has been the standard design now for many years. I might say, by the way, that the camera we have on the market is from Darling's design, but the patent movement is our own.

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WARREN, 1912: 10.

Dès ses débuts, Esmé Collings va utiliser les décors naturels qu'offrent le St. Ann's Well et le Wild Garden de Brighton dont le responsable, depuis 1892 est G. A. Smith :

About this time pictures were being made in Brighton by Mr. Esmé Collings, a photographer who had over his door formerly partner with Mr. W. Frieze Greene, and Mr. Collings made use of St. Ann's Well and Wild Garden close by for producing some of his pictures. The lessee of this pleasure garden was Mr. G. A. Smith, and I became acquainted with him as a customer for chemicals and so found that he too was experimenting with the kinematograph.

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WARREN, 1912: 10.

Afin de pouvoir produire les films qu'il compte tourner, Esmé Collings va s'associer à Lewis Sealy qui devient ainsi l'un des tout premiers producteurs du cinématographe britannique :

Mr. Sealy's pictures were seen at the Metropolitan. Associated with him in producing and manufacturing was Esme Collings, of Bond street, a photographer of royalty and other prominent persons. they made their first picture exactly twenty years ago this year.
In 1897 they filmed the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. They also made a picture of the Derby of that year. He abandoned motion picture producing after three years, because on the difficulty in getting places for exhibiting them, as there were no theatres devoted to pictures at the time. For a while he leased a theatre at Brighton for the purpose.

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Motion Picture News, 9 décembre 1916, vol. 14., nº 23, p. 3635.

 Lewis Sealy distribue également les films de Birt Acres.

Picture-making was for the most part devoted to current events and the happenings of everyday life. Mr. Sealy conceived the idea of dramatizing songs for motion pictures. He and Mr. Collings produced screen versions of two popular songs, "Tomorrow will be Friday" and "Simon the Cellarer," with a cast of well-known actors and actress.

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Motion Picture World, vol. 29, nº 10, 2 septembre 1916, p. 1547.

Les films d'Esmé Collings sont également distribués par Charles W. Poole et projetés grâce à son eventograph.

Sheffield Independent, Sheffield, mercredi 23 décembre 1896, p. 4.

Au cours des quelques mois où Esmé Collings va tourner des vues animées, il va constituer un corpus que l'on peut évaluer à une quarantaine de films, pour l'essentiel des vues d'actualité ou générale.

En 1897, le cinématographiste va prendre part à une expérience originale. Hugo Moss, créateur de mises en scènes de chansons connues, rencontre Esmé Collings et lui propose de tourner des films pour accompagner ces airs célèbres. Ainsi est présenté cette vue animée et sonorisée. Hugh Moss, bien des années après, rapporte l'anecdote : 

THE FILM WORLD.
SOME EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF THE KINEMA IN LONDON.
By HUGH MOSS.
It was in 1897 that I first met Mr. Esmé Collings, who owned a fashionable photographic business in Bond-street. Keenly interested, he had been experimenting with and made a hobby of the new Kinematograph, and had some sort of hazy idea that it could be used as a vehicle for entertainment on the stage.
Some years before this happy meeting I had dramatised such well-known songs as “Sally in Our Alley,” "The Bailiff’s Daughter of Islington,” and "The Misletoe Bough” for a projected dumb-show entertainment designed to be played by children for children... I told Mr. Collings of these, and he very warmly approved. It was not long before I had come to an arrangement with him to dramatise songs for "grown ups,” to be played by the best actors and actresses we could find.
The rollicking "Simon the Cellarer" was among the first we rehearsed and filmed with William Hogarth singing the songs in the wings, as it were, while the stories were developed for the screen.
One film was completed in time to be included as a "turn” in the programme of the Actors’ Association matinée“‘given at Her Majesty’s Theatre on Thursday, November 11, 1897, and was intended as an unheralded surprise. Sandwiched between Olga Nethersole and Co., in an act of "The Lady of the Camelias,” and Beerbohm Tree and Co. in "Katherine and Petruchio,” the programme did not betray the secret when it announced :—
Mr. WILLIAM WYES, Miss ANNIE MONTELLI, and Mrs W. H. BROOKE in a new and original playlet in three acts (suggested by the popular song entitled SIMON THE CELLARER), written and invented by Mr. Hugh Moss.
It was such a tiny "turn.” three acts in three minutes; a cameo comedy, over almost as soon as it began; that, though it was cordially recognised within the theatre as an amusing novelty and the first of its kind, it did not create much interest without for a long while.

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Evening News, Londres, samedi 21 février 1920, p. 6.

Toutefois, si Mr. Hugh Moss est bien cité dans la presse de l'époque, rien n'est dit sur cette projection très spéciale, simplement la ligne suivante :

Mr. William Wyes and Mrs. E. H. Brooke in a New Playet in three acts (suggested by the popular song "Simont the Cellarer"), written and invented by Hugh Moss.

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Morning Post, Londres, lundi 8 novembre 1897, p. 4.

Esmé Collings abandonne dès lors ses activités de cinématographiste. il cède sa collection à James Williamson :

Meanwhile, Mr. Esme Collings, the well-known portrait photographer, had entered into partnership with W. F. Greene, who produced the first model of a cinematographic or chronophotographic apparatus, as it was called. With his camera Mr. Collings secured an excellent varied series of pictures. But after a time he lost interest in cinematography, when his stock of films was acquired by Mr. Williamson.

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TALBOT Frederick A., Moving Pictures. How They are Made and Worked, Londres: William Heinemann, 1914, p. 108.

Ce que confirme James Williamson lui-même :

On looking over an old account book, I see that i 1896 I bought films from Paul, Esme Collings, Fuerst Bros. (Lumiere) and Maguire and Baucus

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WILLIAMSON, 1917: 16.

Et après... (1898-1936)

Par la suite, Esmé Collings va se consacrer uniquement à la photographie et aux miniatures. Les presses britannique et internationale publient de très nombreux portraits de la bourgeoisie et de l'artistocratie.

Les Modes, nº 4, avril 1901.

Il dispose de plusieurs studios photographique au début du siècle et ouvre une galerie à Liverpool en 1902 :

NEW BOLD-STREET PICTURE GALLERY.
Mr. Esme Collings, whose unique work in the realism of portrature in its many branches has been so favourably known for many years in London, and of late in Liverpool, is now opening a gallery at 65, Bold-street, in connection with his studio in Rodney-street.

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Liverpool Journal of Commerce, Liverpool, lunndi 5 mai 1902, p. 3.

C'est à la rubrique des faits divers que son nom resurgit à la suite d'une tentative de suicide dont on ignore les raisons :

ATTEMPTED SUICIDE OF A WESTONLAN.
THREE SHOTS FIRED.
The usual quiet of Danes Inn, Strand, was disturbed on Friday morning by the sound of revolver coming from one the chamber there. On the police entering the building they discovered that a man named Arthur Albert Collings, a photographer, about forty years of age, had shot himself. A five-chambered revolver, with four of the chambers discharged, was picked up near the body. One bullet had caused wound in the head, another had penetrated the chest just under the heart, and a third had entered just above the heart and passed through the left lung. The man was taken in collapsed condition to King's College Hospital, where, despite the grave nature of his injuries he still survives.
Mr. Collings is a native Weston-super-Mare, and there only few weeks since the best of health and spirits. Considerable sympathy is expressed towards his many relatives in the great trouble that has befallen them.

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Weston-super-Mare Gazette, and General Advertiser - Wednesday 09 March 1904, p. 3.

 En 1906, Esmé Collings fonde la société Esme Collings (Home), Limited qui va intégrer son entreprise antérieure située au 120 Western Road à Hove.

ESME COLLINGS (Home), Limited.—Registered May 24. Capital £500, in £1 shares. Objects: to acquire the business carried on at 120, Western Road, Hove, as Esme Collings, and to carry on the ‘business of photographers, dealers in photographs and photographic accessories, etc. No initial public issue, Registered office, 41, Poland Street, Oxford Street, W.

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The British journal of photography, 8 juin 1906, p. 458.

La figure d'Esme Collings disparaît peu à peu de la presse et il est suffisamment oublié pour que l'on pense qu'il est déjà décédé en 1909 :

In addition to Paul, Warwick, and Hepworth, still in the business, there were Chard, of Great Portland Street, and quite a number making their headquarters at Brighton, these including Esmé Collings (now dead) and Mr. G. A. Smith, in addition to Mr. Williamson, the only one in the town now remaining in the business.

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Kinematograph Weekly, jeudi 28 octobre 1909, p. 29.

Esme Collings décède en 1936. 

Sources

"Arthur Albert Esme Collings and Keturah Collings" : https://photohistory-sussex.co.uk/BTNCollingsAE&K.htm

WILLIAMSON James, "Some of my Early Experiences", The Kinematograph and Lantern Weekly, 1^er mars 1917, p. 15-16.

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