The symposium A New Power: Photography 1800-1850 (18 March 2023) presents recent research which considers the history of photographic invention and innovation in a truly global context and addresses the mid-19th-century history of photography through current critical concerns such as ecological change, imperial power, ethnicity and gender. The symposium was held at the Bodleian’s Weston Library for Special Collections in Oxford, coinciding with two exhibitions curated by Professor Geoffrey Batchen: ‘A New Power: Photography in Britain, 1800-1850,’ and ‘Bright Sparks: Photography and the Talbot Archive.’ The project is generously supported by the John Fell Research Fund.
Indian Encounters with Early Photography: Camera, Cannon, and the ‘Exhibitionary Complex’
Sean Willcox: Indian Encounters with Early Photography: Camera, Cannon, and the ‘Exhibitionary Complex’ Abstract: This paper explores early photography’s shifting status within the imperial culture of display, whose contents ranged from the fine arts to heavy artillery. In examining early photography’s wider role within Nowrojee and Merwanjee’s 1841 book, I explore its reception by Indian elites in the 1840s and 50s and consider how the British tried, with varying degrees of success, to manage the terms of Indian engagement with the new technology via the colonial control of photographic societies.
20 Aug 2023
Materiality and ‘Substance’: Talbot’s experiments in photomechanical printing
Francesca Strobino: Materiality and ‘Substance’: Talbot’s experiments in photomechanical printing Abstract: This talk explores William Henry Fox Talbot’s photomechanical work, focusing on the materiality of his experimental practice. This talk discusses the complexity of experimental practice within photography – from metal plates and paper proofs to ink and etching compounds as well as the photographic and photoglyphic engraving processes which encompass a variety of materials and techniques. By looking into Talbot’s practice of designing and testing new photomechanical processes, I show how materials critically informed his approach, providing a precious insight into how Talbot’s view of photography was moulded and developed.
20 Aug 2023
The early history of photography in relation to three notions of “fixity”: chemistry, politics, and meaning
Chitra Ramalingam: The early history of photography in relation to three notions of “fixity”: chemistry, politics, and meaning. Abstract: The fragility and ongoing decay of the image was an undeniably essential element of the early photograph’s chemical nature, aesthetics, and cultural life. This talk offers a reworking of the early history of photography in relation to three notions of “fixity”: chemistry, politics, and meaning. It mobilizes the archive of faded, damaged, and illegible photographs from the medium’s early decades, the archive behind every early photographic exhibition, and explores its relation to preservation, reproduction, and representation. Despite powerful narratives on photographic history as a medium of fixity, photographs are always, profoundly, unfixed.
20 Aug 2023
Early descriptions of the process of photography
Michael Pritchard: Early descriptions of the process of photography. Abstract: The announcement in Britain of photography’s invention was quickly followed by a proliferation of publications, some of them detailed expositions and some no more than a folded page, in which the new medium is described or promoted. This paper will trace the arc of these publications with a view to providing a history of photography in print.
20 Aug 2023
The global engagement of two British photographers, James William Newland (1810-57) and Louisa How (1821-93)
Elisa deCourcy: The global engagement of two British photographers, James William Newland (1810-57) and Louisa How (1821-93). Abstract: This paper begins with two daguerreotype portraits of unidentified men taken by James William Newland (1810-57) which appear typical of the Daguerreian period but also bookend the exceptional career of their photographer. Made in two of the busiest mid-19th century ports, the images are a part of a mid-century entanglement between commodity trade, photographic knowledge, and an expanding market of globally disseminated illustrated publishing. This paper traces two British photographers: Newland, and the calotypist Louisa How (1821-93). We will look at the ways both engaged with a metropolitan culture of photography through supplies and periodicals which updated their knowledge and tethered them to English photographic conversations. Newland and How’s biographies emphasise the expansive reach of early British photography whilst problematising its homogeneity.
20 Aug 2023
John Herschel’s earliest photographic trials in 1839
Olena Chervonik: John Herschel’s earliest photographic trials in 1839. Abstract: John Herschel’s earliest photographic trials date to 29 January 1839. He photographed his father’s 40-foot telescope and three of these images are featured at the Bodleian. From the onset of his experiments he was fascinated with how to render polychromy through chemicals. One of his strategies involved using “vegetable juices” and photosynthesis to induce photographic images. This paper will profile Herschel’s photographic experiments and discuss the “vegetable photographs” as fundamentals in the history of colour photography.
20 Aug 2023
Photographic images published in books and newspapers show how early British photographers represented racial and class differences in their work
Geoffrey Batchen: Photographic images published in books and newspapers show how early British photographers represented racial and class differences in their work Abstract: An exclusive focus on surviving photographs has allowed scholars to ignore the degree to which early British photographers represented signs of racial and class difference. By looking at photographic images published in books and newspapers, this paper will seek out those signs to consider how such differences were given visual form. A study of this kind will reveal yet another facet of photography as a social and political phenomenon within 19th-century British life.
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