Nineteenth-century photographs

What's here & how to access it
We're starting this section with a dozen images, mostly French and English, from the 1850s to the 1890s. Since many of the names of the photographers will be unknown to many in our audience— indeed, several of the images are by literally unknown persons, there is little point in providing a list of names to select from. When our inventory grows to several score, we'll devise some accessing system, but for the moment we simply offer you a slide show of photographs with information about the photographer, the process and something of the artistic convention we see reflected there. A few of these images are classics—such as Frederick Evans' In Sure and Certain Hope— known to even the casual student of photography. More of them are not well known—rarely exhibited and found only in specialized books for the really serious. And a couple are, I suspect, unique images, previously unseen even by curators and scholars.

How to get the most out of it
We suggest you begin with the image, of course, most of which are architectural and landscape shots. Ask yourself what is included and what excluded. Compare, for example, Bisson Freres' images of Notre Dame with the alleyways of Glasgow as seen by Thomas Annan, taken half a generation later. What does that suggest about the artistic sensibilities of those periods? In most cases we have provided links to additional information about the photographer or an artistic school, or the specific photographic process.

Although it is correct to say that a photograph must stand on its own, we also believe that its context is usually significant to a fuller understanding. Photographs of the architectural treasures of Paris were made to be sold to tourists as the equivalent of our postcards, whereas many of those taken in the nearby forest of Fountainbleu were done as an aid to painters of the Barbizon school who did bucolic scenes of pastoral France. We think it's useful to know that when thinking about an image.

Why even look at these pictures at all?
If one needs an answer to this question, perhaps that answer is, simply, “Don't bother.” Grab your camera and get out and shoot. You are undoubtedly an intuitive artist who can do just fine, thankyouverymuch, without any knowledge of or reference to a hundred and sixty-some years of history and tradition.

Frederick Evans' Sea of Steps surely is regarded as one of the classic photographs ever made. The beginning photographer who cannot learn something from it is probably unteachable. But there is much that can be gained by others from a study of nineteenth century images.