James Williamson (film pioneer)

James Williamson
James Williamson around 1900
Born	(1855-11-08)8 November 1855 Pathhead, Scotland
Died	18 August 1933(1933-08-18) (aged 77) Richmond, England
Occupation	Film maker

James A. Williamson (8 November 1855 – 18 August 1933) was a Scottish photographer and a key member of the loose association of early film pioneers dubbed the Brighton School by French film historian Georges Sadoul. He is best known for The Big Swallow (1901), a trick film with innovative use of extreme close-up, as well as Fire! and Stop Thief! (both 1901), dramas with continuity established across multiple shots.

Williamson was born in Pathhead near Kirkcaldy, Fife, and raised in Edinburgh, where he trained to be a master chemist. He moved to London in 1868, where he was an apprentice to a pharmacist and to Eastry, Kent in 1877, where he bought his own pharmacy and got married. He was also a keen amateur photographer who sold photographic apparatus and chemical supplies in his shop and became an agent for Kodak.

In 1886, he moved his chemist's and photographic business to 144 Church Road, Hove, where he took up residence with his family, and formed friendships with fellow pioneers Esmé Collings, William Friese-Greene and George Albert Smith, among others, for whom he supplied chemicals and processed films,. The property, previously owned by the photographer S. Grey of Well & Grey, was later renumbered 156 Church Road and currently bears a commemorative plaque to Williamson's achievements unveiled as part of the centenary of cinema celebrations in 1996.

Williamson, who initially purchased and adapted an apparatus for local showings of Smith's films, was, with assistance from the engineer Alfred Darling, able to create his own home-made filming apparatus and begin making films, including the actuality Devil's Dyke Fun Fair, in time for inclusion in the Hove Camera Club's annual exhibition in November 1896, and again in November 1897. At the same time he introduced x-ray photography to the region.