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Llewelyn was a founder Council member of the
Photographic Society of London in 1853, and was later
nominated fi rst Country Vice-President in December
- He exhibited at their fi rst exhibition in 1854 and
continued until 1858. At one exhibition Queen Victoria
took away a print of the November Fifth Guy Fawkes
bonfi re and another had to be sent from Swansea. There
are a number of Llewelyn’s photographs in her albums.
He also exhibited at Dundee in 1854 and the Manchester
Art Treasures exhibition in 1857. In 1855 Llewelyn was
one of the British photographers at the Exposition Uni-
verselle in Paris, exhibiting four images under the title
of Motion including probably the fi rst ever photograph,
by the collodion process, Clouds over St Catherines,
Tenby taken in 1854, where the clouds are on the same
negative as the main scene. Llewelyn was awarded a
silver medal of honour. His fi rst instantaneous image
was taken in 1853 of Waves Breaking in Caswell Bay,
an exposure estimated at one twenty-fi fth of a second,
and probably using a falling shutter of his invention.
In 1859 he contributed two images to“The Sunbeam a
book of photographic images produced by Delamotte.
Announced, by Joseph Cundall in 1854, but never pub-
lished, was Pictures of Welsh Scenery.
The major problem with the collodion process was
sensitizing, exposing, and developing in a comparatively
short time. In 1856 Llewelyn announced his oxymel pro-
cess, peserving the collodion in a moist state for many
days or weeks. The Illustrated London News hailed this
as one of the greatest boons for photographers. He also
experimented with glycerine and dry collodion plates
but was not satisfi ed with the results.
In 1859 Llewelyn, Maskelyne, Hadow, and Hardwich,
wrote a paper on The Present State of our Knowledge
regarding the Photographic Image for the British As-
sociation for the Advancement of Science.
Photography was a family commitment and Llewe-
lyn taught his brother Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn, sister
Mary and daughter Thereza. In 1856 he bought Thereza
a single lens Murray & Heath stereo camera for her
birthday. They both used it and Thereza often made a
stereo image whilst her father made a mono one. EmmaLLEWELYN, JOHN DILLWYN
Llewelyn, John Dillwyn. Thereza,
From an Album of Photographs.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Gilman Collection, Gift of The
Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005
[2005.100.382 (1-85)] Image © The
Metropolitan Museum of Art.