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Sallows Goes Beyond the Studio

The following quote from Sallows explains his unique approach to the photography business - "I was not long in business before I realized that in the dull seasons, while ninety-nine men of the craft, 'Micawberlike', are waiting for something to turn up, I would have to turn things up by utilizing my energies in some other manner. My efforts have indeed been liberally rewarded and now instead of a limited field in which to draw an occasional customer I have the whole world as my parish." (Goderich Signal-Star-July17,1947, quoting a 1916 article in which Sallows was interviewed)

The idea took root in the quiet, dark days of winter - "Winter was a slack time for a photographer in a small town. Snow blocked roads kept wedding parties from braving the drifts to record the memorable day on a picture negative for posterity. Business became very quiet. Taking stock of the situation, Mr. Sallows decided that he would have to do something about it. Accordingly he posed a group of children quite informally at some winter sports and pleased with the result he offered it for sale to a national publication. In present day jargon, "it clicked" and so launched his career as a professional photographer." (Stratford Beacon-Herald,1937)

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Two Girls Tobogganing - taken in Algonquin Park. Flo Sallows is on the back of the toboggan
1910
Algonquin Park, Ontario

Credits:
Reuben R. Sallows Gallery, Goderich, Ontario

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Sallows' First Big Freelance Sale -

"How did I get started? Accident again! It was civic holiday in Goderich in August 1897. I had planned to spend the day in a neighboring town but another appointment at home prevented me from doing so. However, I was free in the afternoon, so , accompanied by my daughter and one of her lady friends, I drove to Point Farm summer resort, six miles north of Goderich. There, with my two companions posing on a rocky ledge on Lake Huron's shore, I made the negative white marked the commencement of my career as a landscape photographer."

He knew he had hit upon a winning idea, when the company to which he sent that photograph and others, sent him back a cheque. In a 1916 interview he remarked, "Five dollars for each accepted print! Sixty dollars per dozen. While for the same work at home my regular customers were paying me six dollars per dozen. This was the first money I had ever received for any commercial work and it certainly 'woke' me up," exclaimed Mr. Sallows. " I concluded that if the picture loving public valued my work so highly that they were willing to pay me $60 per dozen I would be foolish to confine myself to portrait work alone with cabinets averaging four dollars per dozen." (quoted in Goderich Signal-Star-July17,1947)

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First photograph Sallows sold as a freelance photographer - O'er the water
1897
Goderich, Ontario

Credits:
Carolyn Hope Watson

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Response to Sallows' Work

As Sallows worked to perfect his photography techniques, reading all the latest journals, participating in the Canadian Photographer's Association (of which he served a term as president) and entering his work in competitions, he began to get feedback about how others felt about his work.

Feb 8, 1900 - Clinton News-Record - Happenings of a Week - Goderich by Eloise A. Skimings, p. 4 -
"Artist Sallows sent us word the other day to call at the studio, but not being out the following letter of praise he received from A.M. Nelson, secretary of the Sedalis Camera Club of Sedalis, Missouri, is a little late for publication: "Your picture is as near perfect as anything can be and yet be a photograph. You made no mistake when you said I would not part with it for $____. I would not part with it for twice that amount if it were not possible to get another. The detail is absolutely perfect. You may judge I am proud of it when I tell you it is framed in a $5 frame and the bookstore I took it to wanted to exhibit it in their show window for a week but that is a long time to be without it and I am afraid I can't do without it that long for I like to sit and look at it and wonder how a man can produce such work of art with a camera. The stationer says in his 25 years of business he has never seen as fine piece of work and he makes a specialty of fine pictures of all kinds and we have one of the finest photographers in the state and he will seldom admit anyone can do fine work but himself, but says he never saw a more perfect piece of work." That letter is as good as any valentine, friend Sallows; long may your work receive as much praise."

-June 7, 1906 - The Signal - p. 1
Won First and Second Prize - "R.R. Sallows was a competitor in a recent contest conducted by "Canadian Life and Resources," an illustrated montly magazine, and has just received word that he has been awarded the first and second prizes in the photo competition. The magazine also makes a bid for any more pictures, of camp life or farm life, Mr. Sallows may be able to supply."

As Sallows' studio business grew, so did the number of freelance contracts he received. By 1907, his work was being published all over Canada and the United States. So much so that he began to make room in his schedule for his freelance trips.

-May 16, 1907 - The Signal - p.8 -
Local Topics in Brief - "R.R. Sallows is commencing his summer view taking and will be out of town Wednesday of each week from May 15 to September 25. The studio, however, will be open as usual on Wednesday." (this edition also features a Sallows photo of the "New Ashfield Presbyterian Church."

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Popular postcard image - Waiting
1907
Goderich, Ontario

Credits:
Reuben R. Sallows Gallery, Goderich, Ontario

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Eight Belles - from a magazine, coloured by The Maas Colourtype Co., Chicago USA
August 1905
Goderich, Ontario

Credits:
Reuben R. Sallows Gallery, Goderich, Ontario

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Sallows' Publications in 1907-08

Although few records from Sallows' business have survived, thanks to the local Goderich newspaper it is possible to piece together a chronology of the work Sallows was doing for the publishing, post card and governments.

In 1907, Sallows was published often in the magazine, Outing. The following photographs were featured in Outings pages to illustrate their articles.

1908 -
-Jan 9, 1908 - The Signal - Work for Sunshine - p.1
Scores Again - "The chief feature of the January number of "Sunshine," the cheery publication issued at Montreal by the Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, is a series of views from Sallows' photographs. The issue is full of them, and the editor says: "We produce in this issue of Sunshine a number of photographs by Mr. R.R. Sallows, of Goderich, Ont. Mr. Sallows is an artist of exceptional ability, having the too rare faculty among photographers in general, of originality. Like Napoleon, he does not wait for opportunities to come around, he makes them. In selecting the few subjects we reproduce we had some difficulty, because the package of prints received were all of such an interesting and high order that to make a small selection was quite a task. We hope at another time to give more of Mr. Sallows' work."

-1908 - Goderich Signal - announcement of Sallows photo on front page of Montreal Standard

-May 21, 1908 - The Signal - Sallows contracts - p. 1
Another Big Contract - "R.R. Sallows had received a contract from a Scottish firm manufacturing picture postcards to supply views of over thirty cities and towns in Ontario. He left on Tuesday to commence the work, which will keep him busy for about six weeks. He will be in Goderich for a portion of each week to attend to his business here. On the invitation of the staff of Woodstock College, Mr. Sallows was to give a demonstration at the College last evening to the Amateur Photography Club. Mr. Sallows has just filled an order from the advertising department of the GTR for one thousand prints, chiefly of Canadian farming scenes, for use in Great Britain. The demand for Mr. Sallows' work from publishing and advertising firms is steadily increasing, showing that our townsman is widely recognized as a leader in the photographic trade." p.1

-Aug 13, 1908 - The Signal - Fat cows - p. 1
Local Topics in Brief - "R.R. Sallows would like the opportunity to take pictures of some herds of fat cattles and droves of fat sheep. Farmers who can afford him the opportunity should address him." p.1

-Nov 5, 1908 - The Signal - p. 1 of special Industrial & Businesses edition - who Sallows is doing work for
The photographs turned out from this studio cannot be surpassed. Mr. Sallows makes a specialty of landscape work and country scenes etc. for magazine, story illustrations etc. and he has many complimentary letters from publisher and other firms for whom he does this work. Among these is a letter from the London Photographic Union which says in part: "Your work is as good or better than anything on this side," and this is only one of many letters which Mr. Sallows has. Among the different people for whom Mr. Sallows does work are such as the Grand Trunk Railway, The Farmer's Advocate, the Ontario Government, and many publishing firms in the United States, Great Britain and on the Continent. In fact, Mr. Sallows' business in Great Britain has become so large he had found it necessary to keep an agent in London, England all the time to look after his interests there. In addition to landscape work, Mr. Sallows does portrait work and is thoroughly up to the minute in this line also.

-Dec 17, 1908 - Goderich Signal - features Sallows photos
In the Christmas Signal - It is filled with photos by Sallows. One section is entitled Summer Time on the Canadian Farm, R.R. Sallows- some featured are entitled - Fording the Stream (lady in water clutching her skirts, barefoot), Footprints in the Sand (a lady on the beach shore), The Apple Harvest (a lady picking apples), The Daisy Field (lady in white dress seated in a field of daisies), The Flax Pullers (line of workers bent double ), A Thirsty Hay-Maker (a lady pouring water from a jug into a farmer's mug in the field), A Relic of Former Days (kids in an ox cart), Did You Lay the Egg? (kid holding a rooster), Milking Time (little girl seated beside a cow), Planting Potatoes (2 older men planting potatoes), Tobacco Planting in Quebec (people seated in a field), Forking Hay (woman with hay fork)