Anyone familiar with the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution will know they spent this year celebrating the invention of photography through their exhibition ‘Worlds Apart’, which places two collections of early photography (one set from 19th-century Bath and another from 19th-century Shanghai) side by side.
What this amazing display of early photography illuminates fully is not only the history and beauty of both cities, but how the magical art of capturing a moment in time transformed the world forever.
This Autumn, Bath will also benefit from two further exhibitions on the subject of early photography courtesy of the Herschel Museum: Photology: John Herschel, Henry Talbot and Early Photography, exploring Sir John Herschel’s pivotal role in the development of photography and his collaboration with photographic pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot and The as-yet unseen, a new artistic intervention by Grace Weir created in response to the museum’s dual identity as both a family home and a site of major scientific discovery.
It seems fitting in this case that both BRLSI and the Hershel come together this coming Saturday to deliver a day conference exploring the genesis of Early photography in Britain. How did it evolve from the experimentation of Henry Talbot, John Herschel and their extended family, and their scientific and artistic networks, and what links did it have with the French daguerreotype process that was unfolding?
Saturday’s conference explores the extent of the contributions of Talbot and Herschel and their circles in the development of the craft, alongside wider themes in early photography. It will also explore the continuing legacy of early photography with contemporary artists.
Whether you are an experienced photographer, a keen amateur or just someone interested in the history of art generally, the conference promises something for everyone. Attendees will get the chance to mingle over lunch, and the ticket price will include refreshments throughout the day and post-event drinks.
Full details of the programme can be found on the BRLSI website, and the conference is also available via livestream.
To Book: /www.brlsi.org/whatson/early-british-photography/
Early Photography Programme:
0930 Registration opens / Tea and Coffee
0945-1000 Welcome / Housekeeping
Charles Draper, Chair, Herschel Society
1000-1015 Introduction: Dr Michael Pritchard
To set the scene for the day Michael Pritchard will look at how Talbot and Herschel studies have evolved since the nineteenth century. He will show how their respective experiments and achievements have left a legacy that still resonates with contemporary artists and photographers.
Dr Michael Pritchard FRPS is a photo-historian of long-standing. He was a photography specialist at Christie’s and then CEO and director at the Royal Photographic Society from 2011 2023. He edits The Photo Historian and British Photographic History blog and is currently working on a history of the RPS and British photography for publication in 2028.
Panel 1: Herschel, Talbot and their circle
Chair: Professor Mike Edmunds, President, Herschel Society
1020-1025 Panel Chair: Introduction and speaker introductions
1025-1040 Speaker 1: Dr Andy Cochrane FSA
Lacock, the Home of Photography
Dr Andy Cochrane is National Trust Property Curator, Lacock and North Wiltshire,
with responsibility for Lacock Abbey, the Fox Talbot Museum, botanic garden and grounds. Lacock is a National Trust property and ‘the home of photography’. Andy has been developing plans and new ways of looking at Talbot through the botanical garden, Abbey and Talbot’s photographic activities.
1040-1055 Speaker 2: Professor Emerita Kelley Wilder
Defining Photography
Sir John Herschel played a critical role in all aspects of the development of photography. He invented some of its chemistry, popularised some of its terms,
deployed photographs as evidence and collected them as art and technology. But photography failed to fit some of his most cherished general laws, caused him
endless difficulties and resulted in numerous failures. How did Herschel help to define what we know as photography today in the face of so much uncertainty as to what it was and how it fit into science as it was known at the time? This talk discusses Herschel’s attempts to place and classify photography in his worldview.
Professor Emerita Kelley Wilder was professor in the history of photography at De Montfort University and director of the Photographic History Research Centre. She has a particular interest in Talbot, Herschel and the science of photography.
1055-1110 Speaker 3: Dr Sara Stevenson
The First Essay in Social Documentary: Hill and Adamson’s Fisherwomen
and Men of the Firth of Forth
Between 1844 and 1846, D O Hill, Robert Adamson and Jessie Mann, working in Edinburgh, and using the Calotype process undertook an original exercise working principally with the fishing community of Newhaven on the Firth of Forth. Through aesthetic and technological experiments, they determined to picture the excellence and distinction of this small society. The results remain an extraordinary challenge even in our own times.
Dr Sara Stevenson is a former curator of photography at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery where she established the Scottish National Collection of
Photography. She has researched and written extensively about the work of Hill and Adamson and their circle based in St Andrews and Edinburgh.
1110-1125 Speaker 4: Anne-Lou Buzot
John Herschel’s photographic legacy
Sir John Herschel’s photographic legacy is as vast as it is multifaceted, yet he left only a partial and superficial mark on the historiography of the medium. He embodies a paradox: a far-reaching and decisive influence, yet one that remains elusive within the pages of history; a clear recognition during his lifetime, yet an incomplete posthumous one. The aim here is to consider his presence and absence in the pages of the history of photography (partly from a French perspective) and to propose hypotheses to explain the gaps observed in his (re)cognition.
Anne-Lou Buzot is a French photographer, who graduated from the École nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière (photography) and the University of Paris 1 PanthéonSorbonne (art history). Since 2021, she is a lecturer at the ENS Louis-Lumière, in charge of teaching the theory and practice of photochemical processes and their technical history. She focuses part of her research on Herschel’s photographic legacy and its contemporary continuations.
1125-1140 Panel Q+A
BREAK
Panel 2: Photography origins and acceptance 1834-1861
Chair: Charles Draper, the Herschel Society
1155-1200 Panel Chair: Introduction and speaker introductions
1200-1215 Speaker 1: Dr Rose Teanby FRPS
Silent trailblazers: four early women photographers and their studios in Bath.
This talk introduces four of the earliest women professional photographers in Bath. The photographic studios of Hannah Whaite, Emma Roper, Lucy Williams and Emma Tuttell represent inspirational stories of resilience and commercial acumen at a time of widespread social restriction for women. These four trailblazers overcame professional and personal challenges to become the wives, widows and unmarried women who relocated a ‘woman’s place’ from domesticity to a photographic studio, establishing a unique creative legacy in the city of Bath.
Dr Rose Teanby is an independent photographic historian specialising in early British women photographers. She is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society
and Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Rose contributed two essays to the 2022 publication A World History of Women Photographers and in 2024 completed a PhD at De Montfort University studying early British women photographers 1839-1861.
1215-1230 Speaker 2: Dr Anthony Hamber
John Herschel and photography in the long 1840s
John Herschel and Henry Talbot (more commonly referred to as William Henry Fox Talbot) had first met in 1824 and had a common interest in light. Both were to become pioneers of early photography. This paper will examine the social, institutional, and commercial environments in which photography evolved during the 1840s, ending in the 1851 Great Exhibition, which acted as a major catalyst to propel the medium into the mainstream. Dr Anthony Hamber is an independent photographic historian specialising in the period 1839-1880, with a focus on the photography of art and architecture. His research projects include an annotated bibliography of photographically illustrated publications 1839-1880 (together with Steven F. Joseph), and a major study of Architectural Photography in Britain 1839-1870. His most recent book is photography and the 1851 Great Exhibition (Oak Knoll/V&A, 2018).
1230-1245 Speaker 3: Dr Sian Prosser
Recording the appearances of the heavens: Warren De La Rue’s application of photography to astronomy in 1857
At the November 1857 meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society meeting, the pioneering photographer Warren De La Rue exhibited the results of his photographic experiments using collodion so sensitive that it could show the belts of Jupiter, and details of the lunar surface that surpassed drawings in accuracy. Many original photographs from this pivotal moment in astrophotography survive in the RAS collections today and will be used to illustrate this talk.
Dr Sian Prosser manages the library and archives of the Royal Astronomical Society, making them accessible to researchers, working with colleagues to use
them in outreach and education activities, and promoting the history of astronomy and of the people who created and used the RAS collections. After a PhD on
medieval manuscripts, she qualified as a librarian and has completed the Certificate in Astronomy at UCL.
1245-1300 Panel Q+A
LUNCH. For registrants there are many options close by BRLSI
Panel 3: Historic photographic processes and contemporary practice
Chair: Dr Michael Pritchard, photo-historian and scholar
1415-1420 Panel Chair: Introduction and speaker introductions
1420-1435 Speaker 1: Dr Jo Gane
Collaborative Practice with Nineteenth Century Photographic Processes
Artist Jo Gane will talk from her perspective as a contemporary practitioner of the Calotype, Wet Plate Collodion and Daguerreotype processes about the layers of collaboration in her work. Working with people, chemicals and places to make photographs that are often co-authored with others, she uses her contemporary
collaborations to generate knowledge about the practicalities of working with early photography. This practice-based knowledge informs her research and understanding of collaborative networks of nineteenth century scientists and industrialists active in Birmingham during the 1840s.
In this talk, she will discuss her experiences of making photographs and outline how the materials and technical constraints of early photographic processes force collaboration and connect early photography to specific places.
Dr Jo Gane is a visual artist, making artwork with expanded photographic techniques that often involves people and communities. She makes contemporary
photographs using historical photographic materials, including the daguerreotype, calotype and wet plate collodion process.
1435-1450 Speaker 2: Kristina Chan
Intimate Ecologies: Recontextualising Early Photographic Processes in Contemporary Art.
Kristina Chan presents her paper on early photographic processes and their contemporary application in landscape practice. Drawing on Anna Atkins’ cyanotypes and Talbot’s pursuit of nature through light, Chan examines Lucid Dreams (Royal Photographic Society), Shared Latitudes (Bergen, Norway), and Habitable Climes (High Commission of Canada, Royal Geographical Society), informed by her sustained engagement with historical archives.
Kristina Chan is a London-based artist working across printmaking, photography and installation. Her practice explores place, memory and landscape through
process-led approaches. She has exhibited internationally, with works held in major public collections including The Sunderland Collection, Royal Bank of Canada, Ingram Collection and the Royal Collection.
1450-1505 Speaker 3: Dr Caroline Douglas, artist: ‘pray go on with these delightful experiments…’ Herschel, Somerville, and the Making of Colour Photography.
This paper explores the collaborative nature of John Herschel and Mary Somerville’s photographic conversations. It does so by turning to art practice and processes of reenactment, and addresses two questions: how does a repositioning of Somerville as a photographer (in this instance, through her 1835 and 1845 experiments) change the way we think about the history of the medium? And how can photographic art practice contribute to the task of locating Somerville in the early history of photography?
Dr Caroline Douglas is an artist and historian of early photography, and lecturer in Fine Art Photography at The Glasgow School of Art. She recently completed her PhD by practice at the Royal College of Art London (2024), where she has been researching the role of gender and class in early photography in Scotland. She is currently a Research Fellow with the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine.
1505-1530 Panel Q+A
1530-1630 General Q+A, wrap up and close
Charles Draper, Chair, the Herschel Society
1630-1730 Drinks
