Evolution of photography highlights at exhibit in London

Below are two photographs from the up coming exhibit which starts October 30, 2009 and runs until March 7, 2010. Rarely seen photographs at British Library will provide window to the past and highlights into the evolution of photography.

Interesting to see how contact prints where made by Kodak using sunlight in a special purpose building.

Did you know in 1884 for the first time in American history copyright was extended to photographs, according to the exhibit notes.

Points of View: Capturing the 19th Century in Photographs – London – Admission is free

Preview early highlights from an exhibition charting the evolution of photography, to be shown at the British Library this autumn. Points of View will navigate the medium’s history from tentative art form in the 1830s*, to the lucrative industry it is today. The show, which will bring together an impressive selection of photographs from the library’s archives for the first time, opens on 30 October 2009 and runs until 7 March 2010.

Printing Kodak negatives by daylight, Harrow (1891). George Eastman’s first British company (originally known as Eastman Photographic Materials Company) was formed in November 1889. The Harrow site was acquired in the following year, and became fully operational by mid-1891. This image shows members of the female work force printing negatives by sunlight.

  
Photograph: The British Library   10 / 13

Portrait of Oscar Wilde, New York (1882). Photographers displayed images of celebrities in their studios and showrooms – in some cases paying their sitters and offering a share of the sales profits. This portrait of the writer was subject to a US supreme court judgment after it was used in advertising for a New York department store without permission. The 1884 ruling extended copyright to photographs for the first time in American history. 

  
Photograph: Napoleon Sarony/The British Library   9 / 13

Photography in progress- An exhibition of 19th-century life at the British Library

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world’s greatest research libraries. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world’s largest and most comprehensive research collection. The Library’s collection has developed over 250 years and exceeds 150 million separate items representing every age of written civilization. It includes: books, journals, manuscripts, maps, stamps, music, patents, newspapers and sound recordings in all written and spoken languages.

Points of View: Capturing the 19th Century in Photographs by John Falconer 

PWG Theme-Category: Historical Collections 

* Note: Joseph Nicéphore Niépce the first photographer made the first photograph in 1826.

Tagged as: 19th Century in Photographs, British Library, first copyright photograph in American, London, Oscar Wilde