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photographs from gelatine negatives. A picture by
Joseph Gale that captured a swallow in fl ight caused a
sensation when it was exhibited in 1879. Professional
photographers were much slower to take advantage
of gelatine emulsions. John Werge later wrote of his
“vivid recollection of the scepticism and conservatism
exhibited by the most eminent photographers on the
introduction of gelatino-bromide dry plates” (Werge,
1890, 96). Only towards the end of the decade did
British professionals begin to use gelatine plates in
any numbers and scepticism continued into the 1880s.
The same was true of the professionals of continental
Europe and America. Yet within a decade gelatine plate
manufacture was to transform photography from a craft
skill to a giant industry.
The fading of mass produced silver prints was a prob-
lem that had troubled photographers since the 1840s.
By the 1870s several of the causes of fading had been
identifi ed but the problem persisted. John Trail Taylor
claimed that “The balance of evidence is, we believe, in
favour of the greater permanence of photographs printed
on other than a surface prepared with albumen.” (British
Journal Photographic Almanac, 1870, 19). Printing in
permanent pigments offered a solution. Carbon printing
featured regularly in photographic journals, manuals
and catalogues throughout the 1870s. Joseph Swan’s
carbon tissue process, introduced in the 1860s, had be-
gan to be adopted and Trail Taylor went on to advocate
an improved version by J.R. Johnson, a director of the
Autotype Fine Art Company. The Autotype Co. supplied
carbon printing materials and made carbon prints for
the trade as well as selling prints directly to the public.
Carbon printing became widely favoured throughout
Europe for reproducing art subjects. Notable European
practitioners included Braun in Alsace, Hanfstangl in
Munich and Goupil in Paris. The process did not have
the same impact in America. William Willis’s platino-
type process, patented in 1873, was another non-silver
process capable of producing permanent prints. It made
little immediate impression but Willis improved the
process and established a company to market plati-
notype papers in 1879. The platinotype process later
became a particular favourite of artistic photographers
wanting permanent exhibition prints. Carbon tissue
formed the base component of the gelatine relief used
in the Woodburytype process, a photomechanical proc-
ess devised in the 1860s. Woodburytype prints were
frequently used to illustrate printed books in the 1870s.
Another photomechanical process that came to promi-
nence was the collotype. This photolithographic process
was devised by Poitven in 1855 but only came too wider
attention when an improved form was commercially
introduced by the German photographer, Josef Albert
the late 1860s. Albertype, as it was known at the time,
was described in detail in 1870s journals and was widely
praised. An example published in the Photographic
News (June 24, 1870) showed the interior of Albert’s
Printing Establishment in Munich. A subsidiary of the
Autotype Company worked the process in the early
1870s as collotype, and they later sold collotype prints,
often failing to distinguish between them and carbon
prints. By the end of the decade there were 22 collo-
type printers trading in London. Yet more important in
the longer term was to be the work of Karel Klic who
invented modern photogravure in 1879 but the process
was not widely worked until the 1880s.
By the end of the 70s some photographers were be-
ginning to glimpse a different future for their art. Dated
“Christmas, 1879,” just a few weeks before his sudden
death, Wharton Simpson wrote the preface to the fi rst
issue of Photographic News of 1880. It began, “ The
volume of the Photographic News just completed is,
like those which have preceded it, a chronicle of twelve
months’ research, experiment, and result—a chronicle,
in fact, of a year’s work in photography throughout
the world. But, unlike all others, it is chiefl y devoted
to the history of a revolution. The twelve months have
witnessed a greater change in the practice of the art than
has been seen by any former period.” Wharton Simpson
was referring to the increasing acceptance of gelatine
bromide emulsions but other technical developments
were also to have profound consequences. The 1870s
were the last years when working photographers were
required to master some of the theoretical and manipula-
tive skills of the scientist in the manner of the pioneers.
Two of the most distinguished pioneer scientists had
left the stage—Sir John Herschel died in 1871, Wil-
liam Henry Fox Talbot in 1877. New scientists were
coming to the fore. The work of Sir William Abney in
Britain, and Josef Maria Eder and Hermann W. Vogel
in Germany was to facilitate the development of greatly
improved gelatine emulsions. In 1876 the French scien-
tist, Ducos du Hauron, took out an English patent that
established the basis of subtractive colour photography.
Alongside the new photomechanical processes that were
to revolutionise the printing industry and Muybridge’s
motion studies, the precursor of moving pictures, a
new future was emerging. The tipping point had been
reached; the foundations of modern photography can
be discerned.
John WardSee Also : Dry Plate Negatives: Gelatine; Dry Plate
Negatives: Non-Gelatine, Including Dry Collodion;
Camera Design: 3 (1860–1870); Camera Design:
4 late (1850–1900) Studio cameras; Carbon Print;
Photolithography; Art Photography; Cameron, Julia
Margaret; Jackson, William Henry; Muybridge,
Eadweard James; Marville, Charles; Nadar; and
Robinson, Henry Peach.HISTORY: 6. 1870s