Color and Victorian Photography

Description

Nineteenth-century photography is usually thought of in terms of ‘black and white’ images, but intense experimentation with generating and fixing colors pre-dated the public announcement of the daguerreotype in 1839. Introducing readers to the long, frequently overlooked story of the relationship of color to photography, this short anthology of primary sources includes: accounts of the scientific search for color by Elizabeth Fulhame and Sir John Herschel;photographers' views on color; extracts from the photographic press and from manuals on handcoloring; and accounts by critics such as John Ruskin. The volume provides a fresh perspective on the culture, history and theory of early photography, demonstrating why scientists, philosophers, photographers, literary writers and artists were so fascinated by the potential for polychrome in photographs. With an introductory essay arguing that from the earliest days of photography the prospect of color loomed large in the imagination of its creators, users and critics, this reader is an essential resource for students and scholars wanting to gain a full understanding of nineteenth-century photography and its relationship to art history, literature and culture. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Illustrations Introduction A Note on the Texts Texts SECTION 1 “In traces represented by tints”: Monochrome/Polychrome 1 Coloritto or the Harmony of Colouring in Painting 2 Theory of Colours 3 “Of Turnerian Light” 4 “French Discovery – Pencil of Nature” 5 “The Progress and Present State of the Daguerreotype Art” 6 “Calotypes” 7 “Colour in its Relation to Photography” SECTION 2 “Exposed to the Sunbeams”: Chemical Reactions/“Vegetable Colours” 8 An Essay on Combustion 9 “An Account of a Method of Copying Paintings upon Glass” 10 “On the Action of the Rays of the Solar Spectrum on Vegetable Colours, and Some New Photographic Processes” SECTION 3 “Graphy” and “Photos”: The Color Purple 11 PURPURA ANGLICANA, being a discovery of a shell-fish found on the shores of the Severn 12 “The Action of Light on the Colouring Matter from the ‘Murex’” 13 “The Queen of the Air: Athena Keramitis II” SECTION 4 “Apollo and Apelles”: Coloring by Hand 14 “Artists Who Painted with the Pencil” 15 Letters Upon the Art of Miniature Painting 16 “Photography and Painting” 17 “Photography” 18 A Manual of Artistic Colouring, as applied to Photographs 19 “Colouring Photographs. –No. I.” SECTION 5 “Direct” and “Indirect” Color 20 “On the Application of Science to the Fine and Useful Arts. Heliochrome” 21 “Those who Live in Glass Houses” 22 “Colour Photography” 23 “The Spectrum Plate. Theory: Practice: Result” 24 In Camera Bibliography Index Plates