Some People Who Contributed to Defining Photography as a Medium



During the 19th century, when inventors were working to develop the technicalities of photography, adventurers and artists explored its image making potential. But merely isolating a moment in time was not satisfying enough to some of these photographers. They defined and extended the aesthetic and communicative boundaries of the new medium.

In May of 1843, David Octavius Hill made a new effort to explore the design potential of photography. He did this by attempting to immortalize the 474 ministers who withdrew their congregations from the Presbyterian Church and formed the Free Church of Scotland. To tackle this task he collaborated with Robert Adamson, who was making calotypes for a year at that stage in time. Hill placed the subjects in sunlight, using all the knowledge he gained form 2 decades of practicing portraiture, and exposed each for 40 seconds.  The calotypes produced from this operation were perceived as superior to Rembrandt’s paintings.

Julia Margaret Cameron received a camera from her daughter for her 49th birthday, along with the equipment to produce collodion wet plates. From 1864 to 1874 she extended the artistic potential of photography through portraiture that recorded “faithfully the greatness of the inner man as well as the features of the outer man.”

Julia Margaret Cameron, "Sir John Herschel"
1867. moving beyond descriptive imagery,
Cameron's compelling psychological
portraits revealed her subjects' inner being. 

A Frenchman called F.T. Nadar made another lively contribution. He made portraits of writers, artists and actors; all of which had a direct and dignified simplicity. His son assisted him in publishing the first photographic interview in an 1886 issue of Le journal illustré. Nadar’s son took a series of 21 photographs while Nadar interviewed the renowned hundred-year-old scientist Michel Eugène Chevreul. His expressive gestures, captured in the photos, accompanied and represented each answer he offered Nadar. 

Paul Nadar, "Nadar interviewing
Chevreul", 1886. Sone of
dialogue that took place in the
photographs were recoded
underneath then to give visual-
verbal record of the interview. 

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