Photography: A Victorian Sensation

Week 1 - First Images
Introduces the first photographic processes, unveiled in 1839 - the daguerreotype, by Parisian Louis Jacque Mandé Daguerreand the calotype, by Englishman WHF Talbot, which Hill & Adamson used to produce around 3,000 images between 1843 and 1848.

Week 2 - 1851: A Year to Remember 
With the Great Exhibition in London and two major milestones in the development of photography: first, stereoscopy, the 3D sensation and  second, the new, faster wet collodion process that made outdoor photography much easier.

Week 3 - Studio Photography, Amateur Photography 
In 1851 there hadbeen about a dozen photographic studios in London; by 1866 this number hadincreased to 284.  Photography becameextremely fashionable, particularly in the new carte-de-visite and stereoforms.  Amateur photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron, photographed the writers, artists, scientists in her social circle.

Week 4 - Stereo Sensation 
Following thepresentation of the lenticular stereoscopic viewer at the Great Exhibition,viewing the world in 3D became a Victorian craze. The experience ofusing a stereoscope was described as ‘mesmerising’. The LondonStereoscopic Company, formed in 1854, had as its slogan: ‘no home without astereoscope’.

Week 5 - Photography for Everyone
Welook at how photography rapidly moves from an expensive, amateur hobby, toreaching the masses, with the growth of cheap ‘tintypes’ and beach photography,and end with the impact of the Kodak camera, marketed with the slogan "You press the button and we do the rest".