John Gibson acquired a camera in the 1860s and set about teaching himself this new and fascinating craft. He lived on St Mary’s and ran a shop with his family. Soon photography was incorporated into their daily lives. He recorded life on Scilly and some of the events of the time. John had two sons Alexander and Herbert and they both built on their fathers business although they had very different characters. They were taught by their father and worked alongside each other from an early age. Alexander was mercurial, eccentric and something of an exhibitionist whilst Herbert was more staid and much less flamboyant. For all that, the brothers were very close and worked successfully together for most of their lives, each complementing the other.

James Gibson, Alexander’s son was born in 1901. He too, joined the family business young but after some years spent as the junior felt unable to work in the shadow of his increasingly eccentric father. They quarrelled and eventually, Alexander retired and moved away to Shropshire leaving James to assume the mantle in Scilly.

His son Frank was born in 1929 and joined the family business at 16. History repeated itself, father and son were unable to work together and Frank left Scilly for a while to work in Cornwall. He returned with his young family and after 2 seasons of partnership James moved to Falmouth leaving Frank to continue the Gibson tradition in Scilly.

Frank expanded the business, building up postcard, books and souvenirs sales to supplement the photography. He has now been taking pictures on Scilly for nearly 60 years and is still going strong. He still has his eye firmly on the next photographic opportunity.

Sandra returned to Scilly with her family after spending 12 years on the mainland. She was fortunate enough to spend some years working alongside her father before taking over the business thereby continuing the family tradition, and keeping the photographic archive intact and in Scilly where it belongs.

As always in Scilly, over the years the business has evolved and changed. Today, Sandra’s husband Peter runs their souvenir shop in Garrison Lane, which sells gifts, books and postcards, and of course photographs. Sandra runs a wholesaling business, publishing and distributing colour postcards and books to various outlets on the islands. She also does wedding photography as well as managing the entire archive of photographs that have been taken by the Gibsons over the past 140 years. This comprises not only of the old black and white photographs – of shipwrecks, events and social history, but also a huge library of colour transparencies which is in demand for articles and advertising by today’s magazine industry.