Dr Michael Pritchard will look at how photography evolved from its announcement in France and England in 1839 up to the outbreak of war in 1939. He’ll show how the cameras and equipment that photographers – both amateur and professional – used evolved, and the types of photographs produced during the period. There will be examples of work from some of the great photographers of the period including William Henry Fox Talbot of Lacock Abbey, Roger Fenton, Julia Margaret Camera, and the talk will show how the dominant styles of pictorialism and then modernism developed, without forgetting how the Kodak and snapshotter introduced a new informality to amateur photography.

The talk will be illustrated with plenty of pictures and there will be an opportunity to ask questions. The audience is encouraged to bring along their own old cameras and photographs for comment.

Dr Michael Pritchard is an historian of photography. His interest in photography began as a collector of cameras, he joined Christie’s auction house as a photography specialist before starting a PhD on history of photography. He worked on the Kodak Historical Collection for the British Library, cataloguing it for public access and joined the Royal Photographic Society as its director in 2011. He has lectured, broadcast and published widely on different aspect of photographic history and his most recent book is A History of Photography in 50 Cameras (Bloomsbury). He edits The PhotoHistorian and the British Photo History blog.

Image: Henneman’s photographic establishment at Reading, Calotype, 1846, public domain.

Tickets: £10 (£8 WANHS members; £5 students with an ac.uk email address) – booking essential. The A Wiltshire Thatcher – a Photographic Journey through Victorian Wessex exhibition will be open before the lecture.

Time: Start 7.00 pm (doors open 6.30pm)

Location: Wiltshire Museum (we are not able to make this a 'hybrid' event)

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Unless sold out, bookings will close at 9 am on the day of the event.
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No responsibility can be accepted by the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society (the Society) for accidents or injury sustained during the course of any event arranged by the Society.