Both Herbert and Alexander learned the art of photography at their father’s knee and Alexander was to become one of the most remarkable characters in Scilly. He had a striking personality, mercurial and eccentric with the ability to absorb information effortlessly. He had a passion for archaeology, architecture and folk history. He took endless pictures of ruins, prehistoric remains, and artifacts not just in Scilly but all over Cornwall.
A year before he died he was elected member of the select Bardic Circle of Cornwall. He was honored for his good work of discovery and recording ancient things of the Islands and West Cornwall.
At his home on St Mary’s he kept a private museum of all his discoveries to which he invited visitors to come and browse. He had considerable artistic talent and thought nothing of embellishing his photographs with a paintbrush where he thought necessary.
Picture caption: Alexander Gibson
Herbert by contrast was a quiet man, a competent photographer and a sound businessman. There can be no doubt that without his steadying influence, the business aspect of their photography might not have survived Alexander’s more flamboyant approach.
Herbert’s enthusiasm for photographing shipwrecks continued long after Alexander had lost interest and was often seen trekking across country and scrambling down cliffs to photograph the latest disaster. Their partnership endured and between them and their father they produced a large archive of photographs of both Scilly and Cornwall during a time when the financial rewards in photography were mainly in portraiture.
Picture caption: Herbert Gibson