Photographer

In June 2025 the first two Perth Civic Trust blue plaques were unveiled at 3 Watergate in one of Perth's most historic streets. Although it is something of a backwater now, we need to remember that, before Tay Street was constructed in 1870-1875, Watergate was the main street along the river Tay with the land sloping down from it to the river bank. The first plaque concerns the early photographer Jessie Mann, considered to be Scotland's first female photographer. It is thought that her birthplace, now demolished, may have been number 22, opposite 3 Watergate where David Octavius Hill was born three years earlier. Hill was educated at Perth Academy then studied painting in Edinburgh. Mann also moved to Edinburgh and became assistant to Hill and his partner Robert Adamson at their studio in Rock House. There is evidence that she took photographic portraits in 1843 and 1844, making her the first women in Scotland ever to become involved professionally in the new medium of photography. Hill and Adamson took many of the earliest photographs in Scotland and their work has featured in national exhibitions. Jessie Mann was included in the Tate Britain exhibition 'Painting with Light' in 2016.