Foreign Travellers and English Naturalists 1840’s -1860’s

An overview from Seminar 2:

The use of photography gathered momentum during the 1840’s. As it became more widely available, it was used to evidence and document all manner of events. The use of anaesthetic in the form of ether during an operation in 1846 and in an attempt to connect with their more spiritual side, (a far cry from the reason and factual values of typical Victorians), it was used as a medium (by a medium) that could reveal spirits of the dead. Examples by John Adams Whipple in Hypnotism (1845) also recorded individuals supposedly under hypnosis.Perhaps an early indication of photography as a means to exploit and manipulate for individual gain.

Despite their initial recognition, and steps forward in printing paper allowing for better results (with the calotype), the daguerreotype and calotype methods did not achieve longevity. They were mostly redundant past 1849 due to their lengthy exposure times and the resulting restrictions in terms of capturing moving subjects and the bright daylight conditions required.

In 1851, British inventor Frederick Scott Archer’s wet collodion process revolutionised the growing photographic industry. This was a negative process using a glass plate, rather than paper with the calotype. This resulted in much sharper images. It was still however a lengthy process. The plate had to be prepared with chemicals prior (cellulose nitrate dissolved in ether), exposed while wet and then processed quickly following exposure before it dried out. This meant a dark room had to be available to the photographer wherever he went.Queen Victoria who had been crowned in 1837 was well into her reign at this time. At the height of The British Empire, wealthy diplomats were sent out to set up businesses, exploit the local resources and indigenous people of the British Empire, to document and learn about the wonders of the world. Photographers had teams carrying their equipment and portable dark rooms up mountains and through villages across the world.

Though the wet collodion process was drawn out and needed a dark room on site, it facilitated a faster process overall that achieved a better quality negative, closer to the quality of a daguerreotype that could be multiply reproduced as a print/a positive image. Easily reproduced images meant a cheaper means of photography which served to expanded its accessibility.It didn’t require the bright daylight conditions for exposure which meant photographs could be taken inside too. The exposure time required was greatly reduced so sitters didn't have to hold their pose for 10 - 15 minutes which meant more natural expressions. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in 1843 about the difficulties of this with the Daguerreotype, suggesting the photograph captured was more like the face of a mask than the face of a man. The glass negative was also less fragile than the copper plate used with the Daguerreotype and glass was much cheaper than copper.

The emergence of ‘calling cards’ for the middle classes created business for photographers - a kind of social business card portraying a particular message through a specific pose or series of poses. Andre Adolphe-Eugene Disdem patented the carte-de-visite in 1854. By 1861 the Census of Photographers revealed that in London alone, the number of professional establishments had risen from 3 in 1841 (which would have included Fox Talbot), to 51 in 1851 and 2,534 by 1861 (not including all the individuals employed  to assist photographers). Portraiture had also become big business in the USA with 500,000 portraits reportedly taken in Massachusets alone in 1845 using the collodion method.

From the 1850’s to the 1880’s, Queen Victoria was in mourning over the loss of Prince Albert. Her own carte-de-viste, depicting her solemn demeanour, dressed in black was made available to buy following the invention of the collodion process, for 1p. This would have been the first time the masses saw what she actually looked like.

Henry Peach Robinson (1830 - 1901), Fading Away (1858)

Due to the high mortality rate in the early 1850’s, particularly among children, resulting from ‘The Big Stink’, photographing the dead became common place. Children who had died from cholera were photographed being held by their parents. These were sometimes staged to portray the moment of dying or after death, something that became almost fashionable for the Victorians. 

Roger Fenton, Cookhouse of the 8th Hussars (1855)

In the instance of Roger Fenton’s Cookhouse of the 8^th Hussars (1855), another example of photography being used not merely to document and record but to capture a scene that had been manipulated or set up. Fenton was commissioned to photograph soldiers in the Crimean War. He was selective about his subjects and compositions. As a result, the real suffering and depravation of the war wasn’t apparent in his images. In another of Fenton’s images The Valley of the Shadow of Death (1855), two photographs of the same scene show how items were moved around and specifically placed for the purposes of the shot.

A French man, Gustave Le Gray  was a pioneer in using composites. In Mediterranean Sea at Sete (1856 - 59), using the wet collodion process but with egg white as a fixing agent, he combined different negatives or exposures to create his composition. Photography was no longer the purveyor of truth. The photographer could manipulate his view of the world. He could be suggestive, romantic, even when a scene before his camera was less so.

A transition was made from a classical period akin to the Greeks and Romans to a romantic period with an emphasis on emotions and Shakespearean ideals, not the constraints of rules, regulation and balance of past times.Charles Dodgson who went by the name of Lewis Carrol for his famed books about Alice in Wonderland was also a photographer. He made many references in his writings about photography and it's philosophies clearly influenced his books. He took a photograph of his friend's daughter, 'Alice' Liddell whom his character is said to be based upon, using the wet collodion process in 1859.

Nadar Sarah Bernhardt 1865

Rather than being used simply to document it began to be seen as a form of expression, a way of self promotion. Felix Nadar (1820 -1910), real name Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, an illustrator, photographer and balloonist, used French singer and actress Sarah Bernhardt as his muse in his Parisian studio. Unlike the typical portraiture of paintings from which photography had taken its lead, here the sitter (Berhardt) doesn’t make eye contact with the camera. She carries a suggestive expression, a risqué photograph of the time. Allowing the viewer to indulge in a voyeuristic observation of the actress – to look when seemingly not being looked back at.

In contrast to this romantic period, extreme poverty was a pressing issue for middle class Victorians. The lack of education of the poor, the resulting idleness and burden on society threatened their work ethic and traditional beliefs in contributing to society. Dr Bernardo’s was established by the Victorians as a solution to educate poor children and provide them with skills to enter the workforce. Homes were made available for street children, the wealthy were encouraged to donate to charity for the good of society.

John Thompson (1837 - 1921), The Crawlers 1877 - 78

‘Before’ and ‘after’ photographs of young boys were used on charity posters, depicting the benefits of skills acquired in the form of better dressed children performing skilled tasks.  Social documentary photographs started to appear. John Thompson The Crawlers (1877 – 78) was one of the earliest recorded. In the language of photography that was developing, narrative was emerging...