History Of Photography

Photo: Latticed Window at Lacock Abbey

William Henry Fox Talbot - Back in 1800, he key figure in the history of photography, which was around the 19th century, he made an early photographic method and published the main element of photography as a positive outcome.

1834 - William Talbot developed a method which included a negative image on sensitized paper, The negative could then be used to create multiple positive photographs by contact printing.

1840 - Talbot made a sudden breakthrough when he found out that invisible, or ‘latent’, images were formed on sensitized paper even after relatively short times. These images could be made visible, or processed, if used with chemicals. By inventing the methods needed to make latent images visible and ‘fix’ them to stop them from fading, Talbot made the future development of photography in the most possible way.

Photo: Cyanotype, from Cyanotypes of British and Foreign Ferns, Anna Atkins, 1851.

1799–1871 Anna Atkins was one of the first female photographers. She is known for having produced the first photographic illustrated book in Britain, named British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions.The completed work contained over about 400 photographs of British algae.

A person named Sir John Herschel had invented the cyanotype process in 1842, and Atkins used it to make her images, which you can call it inspiration.

Cyanotypes, known as blueprints, meaning plans, and mostly used by the engineering industry, were also made using chemically photosensitive paper.which was relatively cheap and easy to produce, cyanotypes had increased a lot of popularity around the 19th century amateur photographic circles.

Atkins made her images by laying specimens directly onto the sensitised paper and exposing them to the sunlight. Once they have been exposed, the prints needed only washing and drying, as there were no further chemicals required in the production of the images.

Atkins went on to produce several more cyanotype albums, featuring many striking and astonishing images, mainly of ferns and plants. It is now kept in the National Science and Media Museum collection, along with the rest of the albums.

Lewis Carroll 1832–1898, was a mathematics lecturer at Oxford University, a Deacon at Christ Church Cathedral and an accomplished photographer. He has practised photography about over 25 years and photographed hundreds of sitters in his Oxford studio.

The image above is Carroll’s great friend and photography teacher Reginald Southey with human and monkey skeletons and skulls.

Carroll was a great photographer whose skills were respected among his boundary and beyond point. His creativity was particularly phenomenal in his composition and camera angles. Along with his technical skills too, it came to a conclusion in the production of many striking photographs, particularly during the 1860s.

Carroll’s preferred photographic genre was portrait, and he is noted for his accurate poses. His favourite subjects were children, in particular girls, whom he photographed regularly, sometimes in costume and sometimes naked, which actually scared the public completely. Many questions and concerns have been raised regarding these photographs.

Julia Margaret Cameron 1815–1879 was one of the most inspiring and creative photographers around the 19th century. She is known for her portraits made using atmospheric lighting, long exposure times and soft focus techniques.

Cameron favoured literary, historical and religious themes for her inspiration. Her negatives were made on large glass plates. She often aimed to portray innocence, piety and wisdom through her photographs, or to depict figures and scenes from religion or literature.

Cameron’s portraits were usually featuring her household staff, friends and family members, although she also made many distinctive portraits of figures in the arts and sciences including Sir John Herschel, Charles Darwin and Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Cameron took up photography at the age of 48, having been given a camera by her daughter as a present.

For the next eleven years, photography dominated her life. She used it as creativity and a money making tool. She was a shrewd business woman who worked hard to publish her work, which influenced loads of people in her time.

Today, her images are recognised as having outstanding artistic purpose and are credited with having had a huge impact on the development of modern photography today.

Francis Frith

In 1822-1898, Francis Frith was a victorian photographer, who had a strong, photography business. He produces photographic prints of the wonders of Britain and other tourist boundaries, such as landmarks.

This really interested the public massively. His growth in his photos in tourism, brought people into seeing new things and experience more of the world in this growth in tourism, and prompted a powerful new desire for knowledge.

This photograph Francis took, shows one of the Victorian Bradford’s most significant buildings, the Wool Exchange. It was significant, not only for its impressive Gothic architecture but also for the contribution it made to maintaining the city, in its role as the centre of the wool community.

Fay Godwin 1931 to 2005 is regarded as one of Britain’s finest landscape photographers in the world. She is known for her black and white photographs, which reflect the diverse and changing nature.

She had a special skill to portray the essential characteristics of landscapes such as, sea and sky. Her work often draws attention to the effects of the different generations have had in the natural environment, which she began to portray, which made her talent progress.

Her work was published in several books, the most influential of which was Land - 1985. Landscape featured photographs taken over the ten year period, many of which were taken.

She had been awarded in 1978.

In 1987 Godwin was awarded the Bradford Fellowship. During the term of her fellowship, Godwin’s experiments with colour photography reached it's highest development in the exhibition.

This photograph illustrates her masterful use of light and shade and striking compositional ability.

This along with a full range of mid tones, creates an interesting scene and emphasises Yorkshire landscapes.

A British photographer named Martin Parr in 1952, is one of the most significant artists throughout the modern history of photography.

His body of work has brought him fame and made a deeper understanding on those who have followed in his steps. Parr is famous for his humorous style and his interest in mass tourism landmarks and globalisation.

His work is frequently aware as being critical of England and the English and as such is often received with attraction and feeling, regardless of its impact on the medium and high quality.

A member of Magnum Photos, Parr works with brash colour to portray a world apparently full of vulgarity and wastefulness.

His first large scale project was a series of photographs of the rundown seaside resort of New Brighton on the Wirral, which was published as a book in 1986 and grew widely.

The Last Resort became notorious for its shocking, garishly colourful portrayal throughout modern society.

This photograph, drawn from the series, shows two small children with ice creams dribbling down their hands, faces and clothes. Their messy appearance implies careless and neglectful parenting, further emphasised by the way they’re positioned alone on the kerb.

His photographs bring audience their thoughts and their feelings about how children should be treated.

Simon Norfolk 1963, is also known for his large scale colour photographs of the aftermath of wars, how it all began, is this how it ends. Ruined landscapes, buildings and local communities are typical themes, as Norfolk surveys the feelings and thoughts about how it would have felt during those tragedies.

This photograph is taken from one of his most important series, Afghanistan: Chronotopia, and shows a balloon seller standing in front of a former teahouse in Kabul.

The war in Afghanistan has left an unfamiliar landscape in its wake, with many residents living among ruined buildings.

Norfolk produces beautiful and detailed images, often bathed in rich sunlight and sometimes including distant mountain ranges, which emphasise the scale and history of the land. Especially the sky, which brings tension while dark clouds begin to merge and cover the sun rays.

18th and 19th centuries are referenced in Simon Norfolk’s photographs, through the dramatic skies, the colours and the scale of the works. The ruined landscape has been created, perhaps a memorial to what has been destroyed.

The shape of the building is emphasised by the camera’s low viewpoint, and its outline is almost silhouetted against the sky.

The muted colour palette focuses attention on the balloons, which in turn, become peculiar, dramatic and suspicious representations of mainstream popular culture.