Born 1820

Biography: 19th Century photographer Gustave Le Gray

Biography: 19th Century photographer Gustave Le Gray

Gustave Le Gray (1820 – 1884) has been called “the most important French photographer of the nineteenth century” because of his technical innovations in the still new medium of photography, his role as the teacher of other noted photographers, and “the extraordinary imagination he brought to picture making.” He was an early pioneer of High-Dynamic range photography and contributed to…
Biography: 19th Century Royal photographer William Bambridge

Biography: 19th Century Royal photographer William Bambridge

William Bambridge (1820 – 1879) was born in Windsor, Berkshire, England. In 1848 Bambridge joined the studio of William Fox Talbot in the castle at Windsor. In 1854, he was appointed the Royal Photographer to Queen Victoria, remaining in the Queen’s employment for 14 years. His subjects include not only members of the Royal family and their pets but also…
Biography: 19th Century African-American daguerreotypist Augustus Washington

Biography: 19th Century African-American daguerreotypist Augustus Washington

Augustus Washington (1820 – 1875) was an African-American photographer and daguerreotypist, who later in his career emigrated to Liberia. Washington grew up in the Americas of the 1820s, a time when African Americans were denied even the most basic rights. Against all convention, all he wanted to do was study. He struggled to get admission into various educational institutions across…
Biography: 19th Century photographer Charles Clifford

Biography: 19th Century photographer Charles Clifford

Charles Clifford (1820 – 1863) was a Welsh photographer based mainly in Spain. Clifford, known mostly for his daguerreotype, calotype and wet plate collodion images of scenes from around Spain, he was, together with the French photographer, Jean Laurent, one of the leading photographers of his day in Spain. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are known to have purchased some…
Biography: French pioneer photographer Charles Nègre

Biography: French pioneer photographer Charles Nègre

Charles Nègre (1820–1880) was a pioneering photographer born in Grasse, France. He studied painting under Ingres and Delaroche, another of whose pupils, Gustave Le Gray, introduced him to photography. After a short period of making daguerreotypes, he embraced the calotype process, becoming adept at retouching negatives and printing. He used his pictures as aids to painting and developed his skills…
Biography: Portrait photographer Nadar

Biography: Portrait photographer Nadar

Nadar was the pseudonym of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (6 April 1820 – 23 March 1910), a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist, and balloonist. He is remembered as a photographer, for the portraits that he made of his great contemporaries. The Museum’s print of the Taylor portrait is a woodburytype, a kind of print in which the image is formed by ink…