The beginning of sea shots sold in pharmacies
Four generations of men have made the Beken family history of sea photography. The story begins in 1888 when Alfred Edward Beken (1815-1915) moved from his native Canterbury, Kent, to the Isle of Wight with his son Frank (1880-1970). There he bought a pharmacy in Birmingham Road on the seaport of Cowes. The town was already famous at the time for the organization of one of the oldest sailing races, the Cowes Week. It was watching the yachts sailing from his bedroom window that made Frank want to capture these moments.
Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that the cameras of the time were not adapted to the sea conditions encountered. Franck then decided to design and build a new type of camera. Two wooden frames replace the usual canvas bellows. One contains a focusing system and a screw-type shutter, the other frame houses a viewfinder. It is the ancestor of the double lens cameras. The release is done by biting a rubber ball held between the teeth.
Alfred and Franck started to photograph cruising and racing yachts under sail, a real challenge at the time, while learning to find the best angle for the shots.
A royal warrant title and the beginning of popularity
The pictures were sold as souvenirs in the Beken's pharmacy, alongside medicines and other perfumes. Within a few years, they attracted the attention of yachting enthusiasts, and even the royal family of England, who visited the pharmacy. Queen Victoria, King George V and more recently the Duke of Edinburgh awarded the company a Royal Warrant, a symbol of British excellence.
The 3rd generation that popularizes the Beken name
In the 1930s, Frank's son, Keith (1914 - 2007), took over the Beken family's artistic legacy. After graduating as a chemist, he became a helicopter commander in the air-sea rescue operation in Cowes during the Second World War. He started photography by taking pictures of the famous J-Class and began color photography in the 1950s. For several years, he photographed various sailing regattas from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean.
Frank died in 1970. It was then decided to close the pharmacy and to create a real photography activity. Keith is in turn joined by his son, Kenneth, 4th of the name, born in 1951. The two men created the company "Beken of Cowes" to market their photographs. It was this company that made the Beken name famous in the sailing world. Keith retired in the mid 1990's after bringing the famous sun shot of the sailing boat Silk II to life. He died in February 2007 at the age of 92.
4th Generation Beken's Digital Photography Advent
Kenneth euros, with the help of yachtmaster Peter Mumford euros, paved the way for digital photography to create beautiful color images in 2005. The company now works exclusively in digital and since 2008 also prints the pictures digitally. In more than 45 years, Keith has covered world sailing events such as the Tall Ship Race, the Offshore Powerboat Race, the America's Cup and many international regattas as well as many light sailing and windsurfing events.
Until 1970, the photographs were signed Beken & Son by hand in white ink. From 1970, when color photography was introduced, until the darkrooms were closed in 2008, the signature - still by hand in white ink - changed to Beken of Cowes. Today's prints are simply signed "Beken &".
A world famous gallery
The Beken of Cowes Marine Photo Gallery is popular with boaters around the world. The gallery features classic historical photographs as well as color photographs of modern racing and cruising boats. The Beken archive features over 200,000 priceless works, from monochrome silver prints to digital images. Each generation has been awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society and the company has collected no less than 3 Royal Warrant titles. Early "12x10" photographs dating from the turn of the last century to the 1930s sold at auction in London for £1,000, and more for larger or framed copies. They were signed Beken & Son and had an embossed stamp.
