1304
1850s: the ‘Photographic Exchange Club’ and two groups
inside the Photographic Society: the ‘Photographic Soci-
ety Club,’ founded in 1856, and the ‘Exchange Club of
the Photographic Society’ (sometimes called the ‘Photo-
graphic Club’). These organisations existed to facilitate
exchanges of images and information between members,
but they also provided networks of allegiance and identity.
Founded ‘to promote friendly feeling amongst members
of the Photographic Society,’ the Photographic Society
Club was restricted to twenty-one members and met
fi ve times a year. (Seiberbling, 9–10) In a period when
the Society mushroomed, this inner caucus provided the
‘amateur’ elite with a base for their hegemony. Grace
Seiberling has estimated that only forty or so individuals
were involved in these clubs. Membership overlapped
and those involved were friends and acquaintances;
some were relatives. A few of these people were engaged
in photography on a professional basis, but these were
amateur organisations imitating learned societies and
dining clubs (where gentlemen socialised over a meal).
According to Seiberling, the rules of the Photographic
Exchange Club stipulated two photographic exchanges
a year, but only four exchanges took place between 1855
and 1858. (Seiberling, 12) The Exchange Club of the Pho-
tographic Society issued two bound albums of members’
photographs. The subjects of these pictures—antiquarian
images of ancient buildings and monuments, picturesque
views, landscapes, and so forth—typify the social vision
of the gentleman amateur (Seiberling, 11).
From the outset tensions existed in the Photographic
Society between amateurs and professionals. Talbot
stressed the organisation should be founded on ‘respect-
able’ principles, unsullied by commerce. However, Fen-
ton included professional or ‘practical’ photography in
his vision for the Society. At the fi rst anniversary meet-
ing a motion advocated excluding those who practiced
photography for profi t. This proposition fell because it
would have applied (among others) to Fenton who was
Honorary Secretary (‘Anniversary Meeting,’ 165–66).
According to Seiberling this tussle for control continued
until 1858 (Seiberling, 73).
Nevertheless, a change was underway. The number
of professional photographers in the Society increased
substantively as did the range of commercial fi rms par-
ticipating in the annual exhibitions. By the middle of
the 1860s those involved in the exchange clubs had died
or were no longer active in photography. This is not to
suggest that there were ever rigid barriers demarcating
amateur from commercial work: Talbot patented his
inventions and attempted various commercial ventures;
in 1853 early amateurs, including Philipe Delamotte and
Cundall, instigated the ‘Photographic Institution,’ which
charged for lessons, and sold equipment and prints;
in 1856 Fenton, along with others from the Exchange
Club, left the Council of the Society to found the com-
mercial ‘Photographic Association,’ when it fl opped
he returned to the Society and again played an active
role as Vice President. Some early amateurs made the
transition to professional photography; others tried to
do so but failed.
Shortly after the foundation of the Photographic
Society regional groupings appeared. The Liverpool
Photographic Society was founded in 1853; the Man-
chester Society in 1855. Men professionally engaged
with photography played a signifi cant role in instigating
these organisations in these industrial and commercial
cities. But, even in these Northern bastions of capitalism,
the key representative roles were fi lled by local notables.
This should come as no surprise: this representative
structure mirrors the British state and its colonial ex-
tensions. Some societies were short lived (In each case
dates are for foundation of the society.): Devon and
Cornwall (1854), Norwich (1854), Brighton and Sussex
(1855), Birmingham (1856) reformed in 1885, Chorl-
ton (1857), Blackheath (1857), Greenwich (1857) and
Macclesfi eld (1858). The North London Society (1857)
and the South London Society (1859) were more stable;
as were the Nottingham (1858) and Bradford Societies
(1860). With the rise of regionally active groups—the
‘parent society’—became known as the Photographic
Society of London; then the Photographic Society of
Great Britain in 1874.
Special mention must be made of ‘British’ Societies
situated beyond England’s borders. Preceded by the
Glasgow Photographic Society (1854), the Photographic
Society of Scotland was formed in Edinburgh in 1856.
Sir David Brewster was elected President; George Moir,
previously involved with the Edinburgh Calotype Club
was elected a Vice President (though, he stepped down
the following year), as was Horatio Ross, a keen amateur
and former M.P. for Aberdeen. Prince Albert agreed to
act as Patron a month after foundation. The Society held
regular meetings at which photographs and items of
equipment were displayed and lectures presented; some
papers along with the minutes of proceedings appeared
in the Journal of the Photographic Society. The fi rst
annual exhibition was held in December 1856: 1,050
photographs were seen by 8,000 people. The Scottish
Society’s exhibition was to become a signifi cant annual
event. At the second AGM in 1858, membership stood at
151 and was said to include all prominent amateur and
professional photographers in Scotland. However, fol-
lowing the establishment of the Edinburgh Photographic
Society in 1861, the Photographic Society of Scotland
declined, fi nally folding in 1873. Other Scottish societies
included the short-lived Dumfries and Galloway Society
(1856) and the Paisley Society (1857). The Glasgow
Society became the Glasgow and West of Scotland
Photographic Society in 1860.
In Ireland—at this time a part of the British state—