Beken Of Cowes Archive

When Isle of Wight chemist Alfred Beken (1855-1915) first sought to experiment with marine photography, the art was in its infancy. While early attempts provided inconsistent quality, undeterred by a myriad of technical problems of photographing at sea, Frank Beken (1880-1970) designed and built a new style of camera. Instead of the usual canvas bellows, he used two wooden box frames - one enclosing a screw thread focusing system and shutter, and the other frame housing a viewfinder with the shutter being fired by biting a rubber ball, held between his teeth!

In the early days, Frank Beken rowed himself to the race course. Estimating the course of the yachts, the effect of wind and tide, he would wait for them to approach. Distances were not marked on his camera's viewfinder. Instead, there were three settings for vessels of different sizes, being dinghies, yachts and ships. By standing in his small open dinghy, swaying from side to side in the swell of the sea, he would wait patiently for the approaching yachts, until three-quarters filled in his viewfinder he would bite the ball in his mouth taking a photograph. On each trip out he could carry around 50 glass plates (film negatives) due to their sheer weight, and normally only have one chance to photograph the boats thundering towards him.

Keith Beken (1914-2007), Frank's son, joined his father in the 1930's, also building his own camera. Together, father and son amassed a photographic archive numbering some 135,000 glass plates. Kenneth Beken (b.1951) joined his father Keith in the family business in 1970, and today continues over 100 years of family tradition, capturing the ever-changing history of British and international yachting from his home in Cowes, on the Isle of Wight.

Each generation has earned the title Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, and the Beken of Cowes Archive has held three Royal Warrants for excellence.

The Beken of Cowes archive also contains photographs make by Alfred John West (1857-1937). Alfred John West was an award-winning British marine photographer in the Gosport firm of G. West and Sons from 1881 to 1897, and also by the age of 40 a pioneer cinematographer. He was active in both roles until 1913, when he sold his glass plate negatives of yachting studies to Beken of Cowes.

In 2015, a significant restoration project of the original 19th century glass plate negatives was completed by Paul Brett, and the collection of silver gelatin prints offered for sale here are printed from those negatives. Read about the fascinating restoration process on my blog here.

Frank Beken photographing at sea in the nineteenth century

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