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two volumes, and as was typical of such publications at
the time, there were alternative versions of several of the
images. This led to differences between one published
set and another, depending on which collodion negatives
had been used to make the prints. The importance of the
albums in raising architectural photography well above
straightforward representation has subsequently been
recognised, and the legacy of Delamotte’s achievement
can be traced through the work of many other photog-
raphers. His images, celebrating the interaction of light
with the dynamic geometry of the Palace’s construction,
stand as an eloquent tribute both to Paxton’s original
concept, and to Victorian engineering.
Delamotte was one of a number of photographers
who became increasing concerned about the possibil-
ity of impermanence in their photography. Along with
Roger Fenton and others, he was a member of a com-
mittee formed in 1855 to investigate the problem. After
some deliberations, the “First Report of the Committee
Appointed to take into Consideration the Question of
the Fading of Positive Photographic Pictures Upon
Paper” appeared in the Journal of the Photographic
Society and was reprinted in the Photographic Fine Art
Journal in January 1856. Given the proven durability
of the work of both Fenton and Delamotte in the 150
years which have followed, their concerns were perhaps
overstated. Delamotte’s 1856 booklet The Oxymel Pro-
cess in Photography included a chapter of advice on
the preservation of photographic prints, drawn directly
from this work.
In 1857 he became the founder editor of The Sun-
beam, a photographic magazine published by Chap-
man and Hall, each issue containing four original
photographic prints. The fi rst part contained images by
Delamotte himself, John Dillwyn Llewellyn, Sir Jocelyn
Coghill, and Francis Bedford, and was well reviewed
in The Atheneum in February 1857. Six issues were
published, followed by a bound volume in 1859, entitled
The Sunbeam: A Book of Photographs from Nature,
containing work by Bedford, Cundall, Delamotte, F.R.
Pickersgill and others.
In 1855, and alongside his growing workload as a
photographer, Delamotte accepted the post of Professor
of Drawing at King’s College London, a post he heldDELAMOTTE, PHILIP HENRY
Delamotte, Philip Henry. The Upper
Gallery.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
David Hunter McAlpin Fund, 1952
(52.639.34) Image © The Metropolitan
Museum of Art.