0:00:07 > 0:00:12I'm Eamonn McCabe, and I started as a photographer snapping events
0:00:12 > 0:00:16like this - an evening of boxing in London's East End.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25I made my name when my photographs began to appear
0:00:25 > 0:00:29in the Observer newspaper, capturing the sheer drama of sport.
0:00:30 > 0:00:32The heroism.
0:00:33 > 0:00:34Sadly, also, the tragedy.
0:00:38 > 0:00:40I continued working in newspapers,
0:00:40 > 0:00:42becoming picture editor of the Guardian,
0:00:42 > 0:00:47developing an eye for the one great image that captures the whole story,
0:00:47 > 0:00:52and became aware of how the camera, all-seeing and all-knowing,
0:00:52 > 0:00:54can freeze in time our lives
0:00:54 > 0:00:58and the historic moments that have shaped them.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00It's an amazing photograph.
0:01:00 > 0:01:02We're right in the middle of the action.
0:01:02 > 0:01:06So, when offered, I jumped at the chance to tell the remarkable history
0:01:06 > 0:01:12of British photography, to travel from the surprise of the very first picture taking...
0:01:12 > 0:01:14Can you make me look 20 years younger?
0:01:14 > 0:01:16I'll have a go.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20..to the mysteries of today's digital age...
0:01:20 > 0:01:23Tell an old Luddite like me, what is Instagram?
0:01:23 > 0:01:27..to find out about photographers past and present,
0:01:27 > 0:01:29and the unforgettable pictures they took.
0:01:30 > 0:01:35Understand the science that made their art possible,
0:01:35 > 0:01:38and the changing ways we have consumed the photograph
0:01:38 > 0:01:41over the 182 years since its invention.
0:01:46 > 0:01:50In this first of three programmes, I'm going back to the beginning,
0:01:50 > 0:01:54back to the 19th century and the rapid rise of the photograph
0:01:54 > 0:01:56in British life.
0:01:57 > 0:02:01Back to the first sense of wonder and what the Victorians called
0:02:01 > 0:02:03the natural magic of photography.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05It's very, very quick.
0:02:05 > 0:02:07It is Victorian Polaroid.
0:02:07 > 0:02:09Victorian Polaroid. Great phrase.
0:02:25 > 0:02:30In the summer of 1835, landed gentleman and polymath
0:02:30 > 0:02:33Henry Fox Talbot was seen purposefully walking
0:02:33 > 0:02:38in and around his country house here at Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire.
0:02:41 > 0:02:45He was carrying with him a small wooden box,
0:02:45 > 0:02:47trying to decide where to place the object.
0:02:52 > 0:02:56What was Fox Talbot up to with his curious behaviour?
0:02:57 > 0:03:00Well, he was inventing British photography.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04And this is the mysterious device.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08It's actually a replica of Talbot's first camera,
0:03:08 > 0:03:10fitted with a lens from one of his own microscopes,
0:03:10 > 0:03:13and with this he was to attempt to take Britain's
0:03:13 > 0:03:15first ever photographs.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23With one image, taken in front of this window in the Abbey's South Gallery,
0:03:23 > 0:03:26Fox Talbot lay the foundations for British photography.
0:03:27 > 0:03:32Inside, curator at Lacock, Roger Watson, explained to me how.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36There was a fireplace across from the window.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38He set the camera on the mantelpiece.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41He set them around the house - that's why his wife
0:03:41 > 0:03:43referred to them as mousetraps, cos she kept seeing
0:03:43 > 0:03:45these little boxes all over the house.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48And what was inside this tiny box?
0:03:48 > 0:03:49It was very simple.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52It was a piece of writing paper that had been coated first with
0:03:52 > 0:03:55a salt solution and then coated with silver nitrate,
0:03:55 > 0:03:58and the two mixed together to create silver chloride which is sensitive
0:03:58 > 0:04:00to light and that's all you need.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04Can you show me exactly what came out of this tiny camera?
0:04:04 > 0:04:07It's a little disappointing when you first see it because it's so tiny.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09I've got it in my pocket here.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12This is a reproduction of the world's first negative.
0:04:12 > 0:04:14- So small.- Absolutely.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18This little ghost of an image here is a negative that you could make
0:04:18 > 0:04:20positive prints from.
0:04:20 > 0:04:22And it was the cornerstone - really, up until the digital age,
0:04:22 > 0:04:24we still made negatives from which we made positive images.
0:04:26 > 0:04:28The detail is astounding.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31People like to go in and look at this with a magnifying glass.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33And you can actually count the number of panes in the window
0:04:33 > 0:04:36that we're standing in front of.
0:04:36 > 0:04:37And how long... Once he coated it,
0:04:37 > 0:04:40how long would he have had to take the picture?
0:04:40 > 0:04:42For a long time we thought it was about 15 minutes,
0:04:42 > 0:04:45but we've experimented here and it looks like it was closer
0:04:45 > 0:04:47- to two hours probably.- Incredible.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50The sensitivity of the paper was really slow.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53It just took a long time for the light to act on it.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00For a number of years Fox Talbot had nurtured an ambition to permanently
0:05:00 > 0:05:01capture images,
0:05:01 > 0:05:05motivated by his shortcomings as an amateur artist.
0:05:05 > 0:05:10He frankly admitted his sketches were melancholy to behold.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15Fox Talbot could see the beauty in nature,
0:05:15 > 0:05:19but was frustrated by his own failure to replicate what he saw
0:05:19 > 0:05:20with his own eyes.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24He speculated...
0:05:24 > 0:05:27"How charming it would be if it were possible to cause these
0:05:27 > 0:05:31"natural images to imprint themselves durably and remain fixed
0:05:31 > 0:05:33"upon the paper."
0:05:37 > 0:05:42The 19th century was the era of the gentleman scientist like Fox Talbot.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44He was part of a network of enthusiasts,
0:05:44 > 0:05:48aware of the latest developments in chemistry and optics,
0:05:48 > 0:05:52so could turn to these to find a solution to his artistic dilemma.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57But, shy and retiring by nature,
0:05:57 > 0:06:01Fox Talbot was slow in coming forward about his experiments.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04Until, at the beginning of 1839,
0:06:04 > 0:06:07there came unsettling news of competition from across the Channel
0:06:07 > 0:06:08in France.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13There was a man named Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre
0:06:13 > 0:06:16in Paris who was experimenting with the idea of photography
0:06:16 > 0:06:20at the same time. And on the 7th of January 1839,
0:06:20 > 0:06:24it was published in the Paris press that he had created a photographic
0:06:24 > 0:06:29process and that the images were little miracles in and of themselves.
0:06:29 > 0:06:34Talbot meanwhile had not really made an image since 1836 and he was
0:06:34 > 0:06:38probably sitting down to breakfast sometime about January 12th
0:06:38 > 0:06:42when he read the newspaper that the news had come through.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47Fox Talbot was now forced to go public.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50Barely three weeks after the announcement in Paris,
0:06:50 > 0:06:53a paper by him was read to the Royal Society.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58"Some accounts of the arts of photogenic drawing or the process
0:06:58 > 0:07:02"of which natural objects may be made to delineate themselves
0:07:02 > 0:07:05"without the aid of the artist's pencil,
0:07:05 > 0:07:08"a method which I had devised some time previously."
0:07:12 > 0:07:15In the grounds at Lacock, photographer Richard Cynan Jones
0:07:15 > 0:07:18showed me what practical steps Fox Talbot then took
0:07:18 > 0:07:20to improve on his process.
0:07:22 > 0:07:24Here, Richard has taken an image of the Abbey
0:07:24 > 0:07:28using a replica of the bigger camera that Fox Talbot had ordered,
0:07:28 > 0:07:30equipped with better lenses.
0:07:32 > 0:07:33No f-stops on the lens.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39Thanks for reminding me. There we go.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43- F/44.- So that drops the exposure time down, does it?
0:07:43 > 0:07:45- It does, it stops the light coming through.- Yeah.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47Makes it much sharper as well.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53The larger format camera also allowed for a much larger
0:07:53 > 0:07:56final image than Talbot's first photographs.
0:07:58 > 0:08:00So what is this now, essentially? This is a negative?
0:08:00 > 0:08:02It's a piece of ordinary paper,
0:08:02 > 0:08:05treated with light-sensitive chemicals.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08It's sandwiched between two sheets of glass to keep it moist.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12- Yeah.- Basically a light-sealed cassette with a kind of slide
0:08:12 > 0:08:16at the front there exposes the plates at the inside of the camera.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24So you've focused up already, you've done your aperture.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26Lens cap's on. Aperture's in.
0:08:26 > 0:08:28You've got a good idea of exposure time.
0:08:28 > 0:08:30Yeah, 20 minutes.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34Because of improvements to the chemical coating of the negative,
0:08:34 > 0:08:36exposure time shortened from hours to minutes.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41Here, Richard exposed the photographic plate for 20 minutes
0:08:41 > 0:08:43and here's the result.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47And I think what Richard has produced is truly magical.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58In 1841 Fox Talbot patented the whole process,
0:08:58 > 0:09:00calling it the calotype,
0:09:00 > 0:09:02Ancient Greek for "beautiful picture".
0:09:05 > 0:09:09In the courtyard he took photographs that showed a grasp of composition
0:09:09 > 0:09:11and framing. For example, the ladder.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19And this homage to Dutch painting, the open door,
0:09:19 > 0:09:22with its atmospheric use of light and shadow.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27And now there was a word for capturing images with a camera,
0:09:27 > 0:09:31first used by astronomer Sir John Herschel.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35Herschel called it photography, Greek for "light drawing".
0:09:39 > 0:09:42Beyond Lacock, others took up the calotype process.
0:09:44 > 0:09:50In Scotland, painter David Octavius Hill and chemist Robert Adamson
0:09:50 > 0:09:55used it to produce portraits rather than images of buildings and nature,
0:09:55 > 0:09:59like these wonderful photographs of Newhaven fishermen,
0:09:59 > 0:10:01who appear so confident in front of the camera.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09But Fox Talbot's technique had its limitations.
0:10:09 > 0:10:10It was unpredictable,
0:10:10 > 0:10:14with the positive prints from his negatives often muddy or grainy.
0:10:17 > 0:10:19One artist struggling to make a living
0:10:19 > 0:10:21was disappointed by the calotype.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27Butcher's son Frederick Scott Archer was a sculptor who wanted to make
0:10:27 > 0:10:30a record of his work to help it sell.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40In a former Manchester cotton mill, photographer John Brewer
0:10:40 > 0:10:44demonstrated how Archer also used recent advances in chemistry
0:10:44 > 0:10:47to develop his own photographic process.
0:10:47 > 0:10:52Revealed in 1851, this was wet plate photography.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56First of all, you need to cut the glass and then it has to be
0:10:56 > 0:10:58immaculately clean.
0:11:01 > 0:11:03Instead of flimsy paper,
0:11:03 > 0:11:07Archer used the more solid medium of glass to make the negative plate.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14- So you're coating this glass all over?- That's right.
0:11:14 > 0:11:16So it literally is a wet plate.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20It is. And if it dries out you wouldn't be able to develop it.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22So everything has to be done quite quickly from now on?
0:11:22 > 0:11:24- It does.- We can't mess about.
0:11:26 > 0:11:30Archer introduced a newly discovered chemical solution being used
0:11:30 > 0:11:32in medical dressings, collodion.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38So what's it in now? What's this box it's just gone into?
0:11:38 > 0:11:41That's silver nitrate. So the silver nitrate is mixing with some of
0:11:41 > 0:11:44the chemicals in collodion to make it light-sensitive.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50Because the plate is so light-sensitive, this first stage
0:11:50 > 0:11:52of the process ends in the dark.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04The next stage takes place on the studio floor where I have
0:12:04 > 0:12:06my photograph taken.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12The prepared wet plate is exposed to record an image of my ugly mug.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18Just checking the focus onto the eyes.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21How long do you have to take my picture?
0:12:21 > 0:12:24Really, just a couple of minutes.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26- Wow.- So we need to work really fast.
0:12:26 > 0:12:32So I'm going for an exposure here of 20 seconds.
0:12:32 > 0:12:34So I'll shut up now and not move, right.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36- No, you can breathe.- I can breathe!
0:12:36 > 0:12:38- And you can blink.- Oh, right.
0:12:38 > 0:12:39OK. So we use a...
0:12:41 > 0:12:43..top hat as a shutter.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45I love your shutter cover. It's brilliant.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50OK. Three, two, one.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54Wet plate photography greatly speeded up exposure times.
0:12:54 > 0:12:59Within a decade we'd gone from 20 minutes needed by Richard at Lacock
0:12:59 > 0:13:01to the 20 seconds it's taken John here.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05Well, that was painless.
0:13:09 > 0:13:14The last stage, back in the dark, is where the image finally appears.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16We've taken a photograph.
0:13:16 > 0:13:18We've beetled it back to the darkroom.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24- What is that you're pouring on? - That's developer.- Right.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30It's that moment of nervousness and anticipation I remember
0:13:30 > 0:13:32from my own darkroom days,
0:13:32 > 0:13:37that waiting for the photographic image magically to appear.
0:13:45 > 0:13:46OK. Put the light on.
0:13:50 > 0:13:51Wow, look at that.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57So that's how fast it is. It is Victorian Polaroid.
0:13:57 > 0:13:58Victorian Polaroid - great phrase.
0:14:04 > 0:14:06Wow, look at the quality of that. That's superb.
0:14:08 > 0:14:10Shame about the bloke in it, but it's a superb nick.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16From this one negative, you could print as many positive copies
0:14:16 > 0:14:18as you liked,
0:14:18 > 0:14:22a mass production of images so appropriate for a Britain
0:14:22 > 0:14:24experiencing Industrial Revolution.
0:14:26 > 0:14:31But, sadly, no profit ever came to Frederick Scott Archer.
0:14:31 > 0:14:32Unlike Fox Talbot,
0:14:32 > 0:14:36this pioneer of British photography didn't have the money to take out
0:14:36 > 0:14:39a patent on his own invention.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43He died at the age of 43, penniless.
0:14:43 > 0:14:47Yet Archer had refined the scientific basis on which
0:14:47 > 0:14:51the new medium could go out into the world and create art.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02One of the first to realise photography's unprecedented fusion
0:15:02 > 0:15:07of art and science came here during the summer of 1854
0:15:07 > 0:15:11to Bolton Abbey in Yorkshire and the surrounding Wharfe Valley.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19Roger Fenton was a founder-member of the Photographic Society,
0:15:19 > 0:15:22dedicated to raising technical standards,
0:15:22 > 0:15:25but also to making photography into a fine art.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32Fenton was trained as a painter and wanted to prove that
0:15:32 > 0:15:36the mechanical device of the camera could find new ways to reinterpret
0:15:36 > 0:15:39established genres of art -
0:15:39 > 0:15:41in this instance, that of landscape.
0:15:43 > 0:15:45He took a photograph of the abbey ruins.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50When this was exhibited, Victorians,
0:15:50 > 0:15:53conscious of the turbulent times they were living through,
0:15:53 > 0:15:58would read it as a vision of time past, haunting and romantic,
0:15:58 > 0:15:59yet also comforting.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06Then, from the shore of the Wharfe, downriver from the abbey,
0:16:06 > 0:16:08Fenton took this.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13Contemporaries understood the quality of his vision.
0:16:14 > 0:16:18"He seems to be to photography what Turner was to painting,"
0:16:18 > 0:16:20wrote one critic.
0:16:20 > 0:16:25The Illustrated London News praised his soft and mellow tone
0:16:25 > 0:16:28and richness of atmospheric colour.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35It's all the more impressive when you consider that Fenton
0:16:35 > 0:16:39and his assistant had to take not only a heavy camera,
0:16:39 > 0:16:41tripod and glass plates,
0:16:41 > 0:16:45but also processing materials, along the river.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49The drawback with wet plate photography was that Fenton
0:16:49 > 0:16:53had no choice but to develop his negatives on the spot
0:16:53 > 0:16:55using a portable darkroom.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59Any delay with the wet plate drying spelt disaster.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06So it was a real challenge to take a photograph here,
0:17:06 > 0:17:10on the slippery rocks where the river narrows into a torrent
0:17:10 > 0:17:12of roaring water.
0:17:12 > 0:17:14Yet he made a masterpiece,
0:17:14 > 0:17:18evoking the sublime and the sheer force of nature.
0:17:21 > 0:17:23On the very spot this was taken,
0:17:23 > 0:17:26I talked to photo historian Colin Harding.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29Now, I was always told never to shoot into bright light.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33When he did so up here, do you think he knew what he was doing?
0:17:33 > 0:17:36I think he did. The idea was that you used light behind you
0:17:36 > 0:17:39but Fenton was prepared to push the boundaries.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42And if he pointed his lens towards the light,
0:17:42 > 0:17:45he would create this dramatic atmospheric effect where the sky
0:17:45 > 0:17:49seems to merge into the water creating this...
0:17:49 > 0:17:54Almost a slice between the two banks,
0:17:54 > 0:17:57reinforcing the sense of the narrow gorge.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00So you get this wonderful effect of the movement of the water,
0:18:00 > 0:18:02captured over the long exposure,
0:18:02 > 0:18:05framed by the figures of the fishermen,
0:18:05 > 0:18:08immobile on the banks of the river.
0:18:09 > 0:18:11Does this photograph, taken here,
0:18:11 > 0:18:14bring something new to what people would have expected?
0:18:14 > 0:18:19The tradition of the figure in landscape, the romantic paintings,
0:18:19 > 0:18:22German romanticism of the 19th century, he knew all of that.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25But what he was able to do was to use photography,
0:18:25 > 0:18:26to use the framing of composition
0:18:26 > 0:18:29to create something which is different,
0:18:29 > 0:18:32taking the old traditions but extending them to create new effects.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35So, taking the effects that Turner created with paint,
0:18:35 > 0:18:38but using light to create those effects.
0:18:38 > 0:18:40So, not abandoning tradition,
0:18:40 > 0:18:42but incorporating tradition
0:18:42 > 0:18:44and building on it to create something new,
0:18:44 > 0:18:46a particular photographic aesthetic.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51I can now understand how a photograph like this
0:18:51 > 0:18:55from the Wharfe Valley is a poetic, almost timeless vision.
0:19:00 > 0:19:05But the camera could also capture the here and now - the news,
0:19:05 > 0:19:09those truly momentous events making Britain the most powerful nation
0:19:09 > 0:19:10in the world.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18At Napier Yard in the Isle of Dogs in London's Docklands,
0:19:18 > 0:19:21photographer Robert Howlett did exactly this.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27Howlett had helped set up a business to make money out of picture taking,
0:19:27 > 0:19:28with premises on Bond Street.
0:19:30 > 0:19:35In 1857 he was hired to photograph the most ambitious project so far
0:19:35 > 0:19:39from the greatest engineer of the time, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45Brunel wanted his creation of the Great Eastern steamship
0:19:45 > 0:19:50to be recorded, celebrated and immortalised, not by any old media,
0:19:50 > 0:19:52but by the power of photography.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59Howlett photographed this site many times to chronicle the building
0:19:59 > 0:20:03of what was claimed to be the largest movable object ever to sail
0:20:03 > 0:20:05on the high seas.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10And he rose to the challenge of conveying the massive scale
0:20:10 > 0:20:12of his subjects.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17This photograph's showing a ship 692 feet long
0:20:17 > 0:20:19and weighing 18,000 tonnes.
0:20:28 > 0:20:33With six masts and five steam engines generating 8,000 units
0:20:33 > 0:20:37of mechanical horsepower, this was being built to carry
0:20:37 > 0:20:40up to 4,000 passengers across the oceans of the world.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49I think Howlett showed great skill in his choice of angles to capture
0:20:49 > 0:20:50the grandeur of the ship.
0:20:53 > 0:20:55But he showed great courage, too.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59To get this bird's eye view of the ship,
0:20:59 > 0:21:02Howlett had to haul his camera and his tripod high up
0:21:02 > 0:21:05onto the wooden scaffolding - quite a feat.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13Each stage of the construction was eagerly reported on by the press.
0:21:13 > 0:21:17With newspapers growing and a circulation war underway,
0:21:17 > 0:21:20the photograph was in demand.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24Now it would be seen by greater numbers than ever before.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28Howlett's work was bought by the Illustrated Times and included
0:21:28 > 0:21:29in a special edition.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35Each photograph had to be copied by an engraver who made a wood block
0:21:35 > 0:21:37version of the image.
0:21:37 > 0:21:39Until later printing techniques,
0:21:39 > 0:21:42this was the only way a photograph could appear in a newspaper.
0:21:49 > 0:21:54Howlett's role was not only one of an observer but also reporter,
0:21:54 > 0:21:57especially when Brunel's great project started to go wrong.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02He was present to record the ship's difficult,
0:22:02 > 0:22:04drawn-out, sideways launch into the Thames.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10At the first attempt on the 3rd of November 1857,
0:22:10 > 0:22:13the monstrous structure was renamed Leviathan.
0:22:15 > 0:22:16But it moved barely three feet.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21There was a second, then a third failure to float.
0:22:23 > 0:22:25During this troubled period,
0:22:25 > 0:22:28Brunel's portrait was taken by Howlett in front of the ship's
0:22:28 > 0:22:30launching chains.
0:22:31 > 0:22:35This has become the iconic image of Victorian power and glory.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40But for Howlett's biographer, Rose Teanby,
0:22:40 > 0:22:43there is much more to learn about it.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45If you understand the context,
0:22:45 > 0:22:47does it help you understand the photograph?
0:22:47 > 0:22:53Absolutely. It's a man struggling against the odds,
0:22:53 > 0:22:56vilified by the general public,
0:22:56 > 0:22:58and under enormous stress...
0:22:59 > 0:23:03..but defiant in the face of that stress.
0:23:03 > 0:23:05There's a certain swagger in the picture, isn't there,
0:23:05 > 0:23:08with the cigar and the jauntiness of it?
0:23:08 > 0:23:09I don't agree.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12- No?- No. He always smoked a cigar.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14He smoked 40 cigars a day.
0:23:14 > 0:23:16He always wore a stovepipe hat.
0:23:16 > 0:23:20So all this was, was a portrait of the real Brunel.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24It was the Brunel that you would see on site every day.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27The trousers show a dockyard worker...
0:23:28 > 0:23:31..and that didn't bother him at all, he was not a vain man.
0:23:32 > 0:23:34And Howlett caught all of it.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38Why is this photograph so different?
0:23:38 > 0:23:42Well, quite simply, it's an absolutely fantastic example of...
0:23:43 > 0:23:45..breaking the rules,
0:23:45 > 0:23:49having your conventional, classical portrait
0:23:49 > 0:23:52reinterpreted by photography.
0:23:52 > 0:23:54Your country gentleman in his grand estate...
0:23:54 > 0:23:57It's a muddy shipyard in Millwall,
0:23:57 > 0:24:01and his thoroughbred horse is now a wall of chain and his giant ship.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05It was revolutionary in its own way,
0:24:05 > 0:24:08mirroring how revolutionary the ship was.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15In the end, Brunel got fourth time lucky with the launch
0:24:15 > 0:24:17of his great sea monster.
0:24:17 > 0:24:22The Leviathan made its maiden voyage on the 30th of August 1859.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28But, by this time, Brunel was dead and so was Howlett,
0:24:28 > 0:24:32another photographic trailblazer at 27, dying young.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38The Great Eastern photographs taken together are a record of Britain
0:24:38 > 0:24:40as a mighty industrial nation.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45But photography could also be a witness to Britain
0:24:45 > 0:24:49as an imperial power, especially when it went to war.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53In the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle
0:24:53 > 0:24:56there are original prints of photographs Roger Fenton
0:24:56 > 0:25:02took in 1855 of the conflict between Britain and Russia in the Crimea.
0:25:03 > 0:25:07Head of photographs Sophie Gordon shows me the first images
0:25:07 > 0:25:09ever commissioned of a war zone.
0:25:11 > 0:25:16This photograph shows Roger Fenton's mobile photographic van.
0:25:16 > 0:25:21The man sitting on the van is Fenton's assistant Marcus Sparling,
0:25:21 > 0:25:24and it's essentially a mobile darkroom.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28He also needed a way of telling the other soldiers,
0:25:28 > 0:25:31the other people out there, who he was and what he was doing,
0:25:31 > 0:25:34because this was a really unusual sight at this time.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37No-one was used to seeing a photographer taking photographs
0:25:37 > 0:25:38on a battlefield.
0:25:42 > 0:25:46This portrait of Fenton is revealing of a man who wrote in letters home
0:25:46 > 0:25:49how dust and heat spoiled many photographs,
0:25:49 > 0:25:53about the flies and the awful commotion.
0:25:53 > 0:25:56How he was often bad with the cholera.
0:25:56 > 0:25:57How, under fire,
0:25:57 > 0:26:03he was covered in brains and blood from a poor fellow standing nearby.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08So it is remarkable that out of 700 glass plates Fenton took
0:26:08 > 0:26:11to the Crimea, over half came out.
0:26:11 > 0:26:16Many of these, penetrating portraits of soldiers of all ranks.
0:26:18 > 0:26:23I think if you look closely at Fenton's portraits you get a sense
0:26:23 > 0:26:26that he is trying to depict some of the horrors that the soldiers
0:26:26 > 0:26:28have seen on the battlefield.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31And some of them are almost psychological portraits.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34You get a sense of the horrors that the men have witnessed.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38They almost seem to be affected by shellshock.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41In this particular photograph of De Lacy Evans,
0:26:41 > 0:26:44who was one of the leading commanders in the Crimea,
0:26:44 > 0:26:47you really see a very haggard expression.
0:26:47 > 0:26:49He is looking directly at the camera,
0:26:49 > 0:26:53and I find it quite a moving portrait of someone
0:26:53 > 0:26:55who has experienced battle.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06Fenton is creating this new genre.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09There had never been a photographer photographing war before this
0:27:09 > 0:27:11to such a degree.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15He's not taking images of the battle unfolding,
0:27:15 > 0:27:19but he's taking photographs that interpret and that present
0:27:19 > 0:27:23and that comment on war, and that is essentially war photography.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29This photograph is of the main British cemetery on Cathcart Hill.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34Sophie encourages me to see it through Victorian eyes.
0:27:36 > 0:27:40In the middle ground we have a group of officers who are looking down
0:27:40 > 0:27:42towards Sevastopol, and it's that
0:27:42 > 0:27:46interesting juxtaposition between active,
0:27:46 > 0:27:50on-duty soldiers, who are then standing next to
0:27:50 > 0:27:54the graveyard where the bodies of their dead comrades are now buried.
0:27:54 > 0:27:59That is so striking in this particular image.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01It's a very moving portrait, I think, when you think about
0:28:01 > 0:28:02that juxtaposition.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08This is the most celebrated photograph that Fenton took
0:28:08 > 0:28:12during the Crimean War - the Valley of the Shadow of Death.
0:28:12 > 0:28:16Yet there is no fighting here, no dead bodies,
0:28:16 > 0:28:18just a landscape with cannonballs.
0:28:19 > 0:28:24This is an extraordinary, almost iconic now, image of war,
0:28:24 > 0:28:31and it shows such a stillness and silence on the battlefield.
0:28:31 > 0:28:35We can see a ravine that runs between the British lines
0:28:35 > 0:28:38and Russian fortifications, and there are cannonballs
0:28:38 > 0:28:41scattered along the path.
0:28:41 > 0:28:45Now, there is some controversy over this image because there is in fact
0:28:45 > 0:28:47a second image, almost identical,
0:28:47 > 0:28:51apart from the fact that there are no cannonballs in it.
0:28:51 > 0:28:57And it's often discussed as whether Fenton manipulated his images.
0:28:57 > 0:28:59And obviously he either put the cannonballs there
0:28:59 > 0:29:01or he removed them.
0:29:01 > 0:29:03But I don't think that really matters.
0:29:03 > 0:29:08But that is the one question every photographer wants to know, isn't it? Did he move them?
0:29:08 > 0:29:12Well, you have to remember that in the 1850s, all photographs
0:29:12 > 0:29:15would have been staged. Everything was deliberate,
0:29:15 > 0:29:17was carefully prepared, carefully stage-managed,
0:29:17 > 0:29:21even the portraits were very thoughtful and well prepared.
0:29:22 > 0:29:25And Fenton is creating a work of art.
0:29:25 > 0:29:30He's not there to necessarily portray a realistic,
0:29:30 > 0:29:33objective view of what's happening, he's trying to do more than that.
0:29:33 > 0:29:37And when you consider the poetic title as well, which comes from the
0:29:37 > 0:29:41Psalms, the Valley of the Shadow of Death, it's more than just a record
0:29:41 > 0:29:45of the battlefield, it's a comment on war.
0:30:05 > 0:30:08In 1860, Roger Fenton returned to Yorkshire.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14His brother-in-law was the estate manager at Harewood House,
0:30:14 > 0:30:18and Fenton was asked to record its recent extension and modernisation.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27I wonder if, coming back from the chaos of war,
0:30:27 > 0:30:31Roger Fenton found it restful to work in a genre of photography
0:30:31 > 0:30:34where the Victorian desire for the natural order of things
0:30:34 > 0:30:35might be satisfied...
0:30:38 > 0:30:39..that of architecture.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49However, barely two years after his visit to Harewood,
0:30:49 > 0:30:51Fenton gave up photography.
0:30:53 > 0:30:58It was announced in October 1862 that all his camera equipment
0:30:58 > 0:31:00and large format negatives were for sale.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08Over 11 years, taking nearly 2,000 photographs,
0:31:08 > 0:31:12Fenton had wanted to elevate his medium of expression to the point
0:31:12 > 0:31:15where it could be accepted as an artform.
0:31:15 > 0:31:21But this life's work was coming under threat because, by the 1860s,
0:31:21 > 0:31:24photography was not so much concerned with art,
0:31:24 > 0:31:26but with commerce.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36Evidence for a boom in commercial photography could be found
0:31:36 > 0:31:40on every high street, like here in Lewes, East Sussex,
0:31:40 > 0:31:44where Edward Reeves opened for business in 1855.
0:31:46 > 0:31:48For Reeves and others,
0:31:48 > 0:31:51the wet plate process had made photography
0:31:51 > 0:31:53a sound economic proposition.
0:31:53 > 0:31:57And as prices dropped, for the very first time in history,
0:31:57 > 0:32:00people of even a modest income could afford to own
0:32:00 > 0:32:02a portrait of themselves.
0:32:04 > 0:32:05To cope with the demand,
0:32:05 > 0:32:08Edward built a glass studio at the back of his shop.
0:32:10 > 0:32:14His great-great-grandson Tom still works here.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17With Tom, I found out what it was like to be photographed
0:32:17 > 0:32:19Victorian-style.
0:32:19 > 0:32:21Of course, I was suitably dressed for the occasion.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24Pleased to meet you, sir. Would you care to sit for your portrait?
0:32:24 > 0:32:26I will, sir.
0:32:27 > 0:32:31- Why the clamp?- Well, in the very early days of photography,
0:32:31 > 0:32:34exposure times were probably between half a minute
0:32:34 > 0:32:39and a couple of minutes, which means that in order to get a sharp image
0:32:39 > 0:32:42you would have to sit very, very still for that time.
0:32:42 > 0:32:45Is that why many men in the photographs look grumpy?
0:32:45 > 0:32:47Absolutely.
0:32:47 > 0:32:49I mean apart from cultural considerations,
0:32:49 > 0:32:52you can't keep a muscular smile going for that sort of time.
0:32:52 > 0:32:54- You should be able to feel the... - I can.- ..clamp in the neck.
0:32:54 > 0:32:56It feels comfortable.
0:32:56 > 0:32:57It shouldn't be too bad.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00It's a well-to-do Victorian drawing room.
0:33:00 > 0:33:01The biggest aspidistra in the world.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04I mean, all the props are also there to aid stability,
0:33:04 > 0:33:06so you can rest your arm on the table
0:33:06 > 0:33:11which gives you a little bit more of a brace for the long exposures.
0:33:11 > 0:33:13Was this a nervous time for sitters?
0:33:13 > 0:33:15Oh, I think it was.
0:33:15 > 0:33:17Fear of the unknown, I suppose.
0:33:17 > 0:33:18I mean, the process,
0:33:18 > 0:33:20the collodion process was based on pretty nasty chemicals,
0:33:20 > 0:33:23and there would probably be a smell of fairly powerful solvents.
0:33:23 > 0:33:27It was alcohol and ether and guncotton, all these things.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30Some sitters probably didn't really know what was going on,
0:33:30 > 0:33:32they didn't know if the camera was giving out...
0:33:33 > 0:33:35..rays of some sort.
0:33:35 > 0:33:38Some almost aboriginal fear, you might imagine.
0:33:38 > 0:33:43But it was all very much the unknown, it was an enormous novelty.
0:33:43 > 0:33:45And am I worried about my soul as I sit here?
0:33:45 > 0:33:49You might well have been. I think most Victorians were, yes.
0:33:53 > 0:33:55Despite this nervousness,
0:33:55 > 0:33:59the celebrated letter writer Jane Welsh Carlyle wrote to a friend...
0:34:01 > 0:34:03Blessed be the inventor of photography.
0:34:04 > 0:34:08It has given more positive pleasure to poor suffering humanity
0:34:08 > 0:34:11in my time or is like to.
0:34:11 > 0:34:14This art, by which even the poor can possess of themselves
0:34:14 > 0:34:18tolerable likenesses of their absent dear ones.
0:34:25 > 0:34:28Did people want to look really good?
0:34:28 > 0:34:31Say you make the negative and I'm upset about my broken nose,
0:34:31 > 0:34:33can you do something about that?
0:34:33 > 0:34:37Absolutely. You're using a glass plate of about so big on this camera
0:34:37 > 0:34:40which means that you can actually physically retouch it with a pencil
0:34:40 > 0:34:44or a paintbrush. You can fill in those bags under the eyes,
0:34:44 > 0:34:47the little wrinkles, mend a broken nose or fill in...
0:34:47 > 0:34:50Everything was possible. This sort of commission photography
0:34:50 > 0:34:53was commissioned to flatter.
0:34:53 > 0:34:56No use taking a picture that looked wonderfully realistic but nobody
0:34:56 > 0:34:59was going to buy. So, yes, it was all about making people look good.
0:34:59 > 0:35:01Can you make me look 20 years younger?
0:35:01 > 0:35:02I'll have a go.
0:35:05 > 0:35:07The image is focused on a ground glass screen at the back,
0:35:07 > 0:35:10- so I go under the...- So you're going under there to focus on me?
0:35:10 > 0:35:11That's right, that's right.
0:35:11 > 0:35:15Under the dark cloth, I can then see you upside down
0:35:15 > 0:35:18on the ground glass screen.
0:35:18 > 0:35:19Yeah, very nice.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24Trouble is, that camera doesn't actually work.
0:35:24 > 0:35:26This one does, so can I take your picture?
0:35:26 > 0:35:30It seems a sacrilege to do it on digital, but let's do it.
0:35:32 > 0:35:33Excellent. And...
0:35:37 > 0:35:40Photography was being assimilated into daily life
0:35:40 > 0:35:42at astonishing speed.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45Lady Eastlake observed that a photograph could be found...
0:35:45 > 0:35:49In the most sumptuous saloon and the dingiest attic.
0:35:51 > 0:35:53And it had one most regal fan.
0:35:57 > 0:36:00There was perhaps no more sumptuous saloon in the land
0:36:00 > 0:36:02than Osborne House,
0:36:02 > 0:36:05Queen Victoria's summer residence on the Isle of Wight.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11From the very beginning of her reign she was an enthusiastic collector
0:36:11 > 0:36:15of photographs that filled the rooms of her royal palaces.
0:36:21 > 0:36:25The Queen was not only fascinated by looking at photographs,
0:36:25 > 0:36:28she became the most-photographed woman of the century.
0:36:32 > 0:36:34When facing the camera,
0:36:34 > 0:36:38the Queen showed both a public and a private face.
0:36:38 > 0:36:39In May 1857,
0:36:39 > 0:36:44society photographer Leonida Caldesi was summoned to Osborne House
0:36:44 > 0:36:48and took this group portrait of Victoria, her husband Prince Albert,
0:36:48 > 0:36:49and nine children.
0:36:56 > 0:37:00A photograph like this was either framed or gathered together
0:37:00 > 0:37:04in a family album, on view only to the Queen and family
0:37:04 > 0:37:05in her private quarters.
0:37:08 > 0:37:12But Victoria also understood that photography had a vital role
0:37:12 > 0:37:14in projecting her public image,
0:37:14 > 0:37:17and that a single photograph could have real power.
0:37:20 > 0:37:21With Sophie Gordon again,
0:37:21 > 0:37:24it is fascinating to see in the Royal Collection
0:37:24 > 0:37:27the kind of photographs the Queen agreed to be released,
0:37:27 > 0:37:32allowing the Victoria brand to be sold nationwide.
0:37:32 > 0:37:37In 1860 something fairly momentous in photographic terms occurred.
0:37:37 > 0:37:41For the first time the Queen gave permission for a photograph
0:37:41 > 0:37:44of herself to be released to the public.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48The photographs were issued in the format known as cartes de visite,
0:37:48 > 0:37:51collected here by the Queen in this album.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54The carte de visite was a very small photograph,
0:37:54 > 0:37:57about the size of a modern business card,
0:37:57 > 0:38:00and it's almost always a portrait of someone.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04And in the late 1850s the taking of these and the collecting of these
0:38:04 > 0:38:07by people became a craze.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09People bought them in their hundreds.
0:38:09 > 0:38:13Of themselves, of their families, but also of celebrities.
0:38:13 > 0:38:16So she became part of this cartomania,
0:38:16 > 0:38:19this craze for collecting cartes de visite.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22The Queen herself also collected cartes de visite,
0:38:22 > 0:38:25and she would have her ladies-in-waiting write to the wives
0:38:25 > 0:38:27of well-known men of the time,
0:38:27 > 0:38:31asking them to send her their portrait so she could put them
0:38:31 > 0:38:32into her photograph album.
0:38:39 > 0:38:43The 1860 cartes de visite were taken by Regent Street photographer
0:38:43 > 0:38:44John Mayall.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49Mayall's photographs of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
0:38:49 > 0:38:54are quite surprising really because they show a young married couple
0:38:54 > 0:38:56that doesn't necessarily suggest
0:38:56 > 0:38:58that this is a portrait of the Queen and the Prince Consort.
0:39:00 > 0:39:02There's no regalia,
0:39:02 > 0:39:05no crown or anything to indicate that this is the monarch.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08Instead they are dressed in upper-middle-class costume,
0:39:08 > 0:39:13and I think that is a very considered and careful presentation
0:39:13 > 0:39:19of the monarch. It's a way of trying to engage with her population,
0:39:19 > 0:39:24with the people. And perhaps a way of saying, "We're just like you.
0:39:24 > 0:39:26"Almost just like you."
0:39:26 > 0:39:30However, it wasn't long before photography had another function
0:39:30 > 0:39:37for the Queen. In December 1861, Prince Albert died of typhoid fever.
0:39:37 > 0:39:41Now, this is the mourning image by William Bambridge.
0:39:41 > 0:39:43Can we talk about the detail of this photograph?
0:39:43 > 0:39:46Yes, it shows Queen Victoria
0:39:46 > 0:39:50surrounded by some of her children with a bust of Prince Albert
0:39:50 > 0:39:52who had died a few months ago.
0:39:52 > 0:39:56And she's holding on her lap another image of Prince Albert.
0:39:56 > 0:40:01And it's a photograph that was subsequently released to the public.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04Now, many people felt,
0:40:04 > 0:40:07critics at the time felt that this was an extraordinary step to take.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10Mourning was a private act,
0:40:10 > 0:40:15and that the Queen chose to make this image publicly accessible
0:40:15 > 0:40:19was almost a shocking thing. It was an unseemly display of emotion.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21But the Queen, I think,
0:40:21 > 0:40:25is trying to show people the depth of her anguish
0:40:25 > 0:40:28and her sorrow following the death of her husband.
0:40:31 > 0:40:32Later in her reign,
0:40:32 > 0:40:36the impression to be conveyed by her portraits was different again.
0:40:36 > 0:40:39Sophie shows me this by Alexander Bassano,
0:40:39 > 0:40:43released to mark her Golden Jubilee in 1887.
0:40:45 > 0:40:49It's a photograph that is designed to show a powerful queen.
0:40:49 > 0:40:51It's a very statuesque image.
0:40:51 > 0:40:55The Queen is wearing an elaborate costume with jewellery
0:40:55 > 0:40:58and with some insignia as well.
0:40:58 > 0:41:02And of course there is the very small crown which Queen Victoria
0:41:02 > 0:41:04is particularly known for.
0:41:04 > 0:41:07And so the image, we look at it and we immediately know
0:41:07 > 0:41:10that this is the Queen and the Empress.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13In the last two decades of Queen Victoria's reign,
0:41:13 > 0:41:18photographs became increasingly more staid, more formal,
0:41:18 > 0:41:21so carefully composed,
0:41:21 > 0:41:23and often the negatives, as well, would have been touched up,
0:41:23 > 0:41:25the skin would have been smoothed,
0:41:25 > 0:41:27the curves would have been accentuated.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31It's a way for the Queen to exert more control, really.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36Control - I think that's the right word for Victorian portraits,
0:41:36 > 0:41:38from the Queen downwards.
0:41:38 > 0:41:42Each an expression of stiff formality in front of the camera.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45Each a display of good manners and respectability.
0:41:55 > 0:41:58But one photographer questioned all this,
0:41:58 > 0:42:01bringing a bohemian spirit to British photography.
0:42:05 > 0:42:07This was Julia Margaret Cameron,
0:42:07 > 0:42:12who in 1860 arrived with her husband and family to live in Freshwater Bay
0:42:12 > 0:42:14on the Isle of Wight.
0:42:14 > 0:42:17They bought two cottages from a local sailor
0:42:17 > 0:42:20and knocked them into one, naming it Dimbola Lodge
0:42:20 > 0:42:25after the coffee plantations they owned in Ceylon.
0:42:25 > 0:42:28Cameron turned a chicken coop into a studio,
0:42:28 > 0:42:30a coalshed into a darkroom,
0:42:30 > 0:42:33and got down to create an extraordinary body of work.
0:42:39 > 0:42:43Julia Margaret was connected with people of influence,
0:42:43 > 0:42:45including the first director of what was to become
0:42:45 > 0:42:50the Victoria and Albert Museum, which would buy and show her work.
0:42:50 > 0:42:53In the V&A library, I met curator Marta Weiss
0:42:53 > 0:42:57who began our conversation by showing me an original print
0:42:57 > 0:43:01of the first photograph that Cameron felt really confident about.
0:43:01 > 0:43:05Why do you think Cameron called this her first real success?
0:43:05 > 0:43:08So this is her photograph of a little girl called Annie.
0:43:08 > 0:43:12She was the daughter of a family who were staying in the Isle of Wight
0:43:12 > 0:43:14where Julia Margaret Cameron lived,
0:43:14 > 0:43:19and Cameron made this photograph in January 1864.
0:43:19 > 0:43:23She'd been given her first camera at Christmas 1863,
0:43:23 > 0:43:28so this is taken within a month of her receiving her first camera
0:43:28 > 0:43:31as a gift from her daughter and son-in-law.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34And there's something I find so incredibly modern
0:43:34 > 0:43:36about this photograph.
0:43:36 > 0:43:39I think when you look at it, this little girl who was photographed
0:43:39 > 0:43:45in 1864 could have been photographed in 1934 or in 2004.
0:43:45 > 0:43:50There's something really timeless about it, and it's also indicative
0:43:50 > 0:43:56of what a sensitive photographer of children Cameron was.
0:43:56 > 0:43:58There's no particular background.
0:43:58 > 0:44:02The only strong detail in it is this button.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06It's one of the things that's in sharpest focus in the photograph.
0:44:06 > 0:44:08Now, who am I to criticise Cameron?
0:44:08 > 0:44:10But this picture's out of focus.
0:44:10 > 0:44:13Now, if I was to hand that in at the weekend for the Observer Magazine,
0:44:13 > 0:44:14I'd never get it published.
0:44:14 > 0:44:17What did people think of it at the time?
0:44:17 > 0:44:21Cameron's use of focus was controversial in her own time.
0:44:21 > 0:44:25She claims that she came to the technique accidentally,
0:44:25 > 0:44:29but then proceeded to use it on purpose.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33She said that, "When other photographers take photographs,
0:44:33 > 0:44:36"they screw the lens on until the image looks sharp,
0:44:36 > 0:44:39"and I just focus it until it looks beautiful."
0:44:39 > 0:44:42That was her goal - she used the word beauty a lot.
0:44:42 > 0:44:46And Cameron was very consciously trying to make photographs
0:44:46 > 0:44:49that were works of art.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52Marta then talked to me about the portrait of a man
0:44:52 > 0:44:54who connected her to the birth of photography
0:44:54 > 0:44:59and who first introduced her to the medium, Sir John Herschel.
0:45:00 > 0:45:02Again, the photograph is quite close,
0:45:02 > 0:45:07so we see her really pioneering the close-up here.
0:45:07 > 0:45:11Rather than there being any sign of his contemporary clothing,
0:45:11 > 0:45:14she's chosen to drape him in velvet.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17He has a dark cap on his head and he's got a dark background,
0:45:17 > 0:45:25and so with his fluffy kind of halo of hair he seems to just be emerging
0:45:25 > 0:45:29out of the darkness. And this very dramatic use of light and dark
0:45:29 > 0:45:32is typical of Cameron's style.
0:45:32 > 0:45:34There's something else at play here.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38Do you think she's searching for a psychological depth in her sitters?
0:45:38 > 0:45:42Absolutely. She also said that when she photographed people such as
0:45:42 > 0:45:46Herschel she actually felt that the process for her was a kind of
0:45:46 > 0:45:48embodiment of prayer.
0:45:48 > 0:45:56So she herself is, in a way, worshipping these men, in general,
0:45:56 > 0:45:58that she saw as geniuses.
0:45:58 > 0:45:59And her...
0:46:00 > 0:46:04..photographic interaction with them was something very personal,
0:46:04 > 0:46:07something very intimate.
0:46:07 > 0:46:12And she really was making an effort to show the internal
0:46:12 > 0:46:14as well as the external.
0:46:14 > 0:46:17Cameron usually took photographs of those she knew,
0:46:17 > 0:46:20but in this photograph she uses an artist's model, a Mrs Keene,
0:46:20 > 0:46:24to play a character, Mountain Nymph, Sweet Liberty,
0:46:24 > 0:46:27after the poem by John Milton.
0:46:27 > 0:46:31What's really remarkable about this photograph is the way the sitter
0:46:31 > 0:46:32is confronting us.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36And Herschel himself was a great admirer of this photograph,
0:46:36 > 0:46:42and he said to Cameron that it seemed as if the figure
0:46:42 > 0:46:45was thrusting out of the paper towards us.
0:46:45 > 0:46:49It's very haunting. I'm very haunted by it.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52- You can't ignore it.- No. - You have a reaction to it.
0:46:52 > 0:46:54And then you try and work out what's going on.
0:46:54 > 0:46:56- Yes.- As you say,
0:46:56 > 0:47:01is it a piece of theatre or is it a portrait or is it Mrs Keene?
0:47:01 > 0:47:05By the 1860s there had emerged a photo establishment,
0:47:05 > 0:47:08holding strong views on proper ways of working.
0:47:09 > 0:47:11So they hated what Cameron was doing.
0:47:12 > 0:47:14Her work was absolutely attacked by critics.
0:47:14 > 0:47:19They accused Cameron of slovenly manipulation,
0:47:19 > 0:47:23not only of her deliberate use of soft focus.
0:47:23 > 0:47:28There are all sorts of streaks and smudges and bits of dust and so on
0:47:28 > 0:47:30that are apparent in Cameron's photographs.
0:47:30 > 0:47:33Today I think we can appreciate those
0:47:33 > 0:47:36as traces of the artist's hand.
0:47:36 > 0:47:41But to her photographic contemporaries these were just signs
0:47:41 > 0:47:43of incompetence and carelessness.
0:47:43 > 0:47:48And I also think that there was a sexist element
0:47:48 > 0:47:51to the critical attacks on her.
0:47:53 > 0:47:58How dare a woman come along and try and make a name for herself
0:47:58 > 0:47:59in photography?
0:48:03 > 0:48:05Undeterred by the attacks,
0:48:05 > 0:48:08Julia Margaret Cameron continued to take photographs.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13Then, 11 years after the first success of Annie,
0:48:13 > 0:48:17she and her husband left their Isle of Wight home to go back
0:48:17 > 0:48:21to the family estate in Ceylon.
0:48:21 > 0:48:24With them on the voyage went her photographic equipment,
0:48:24 > 0:48:28but also two coffins, in readiness for their deaths.
0:48:28 > 0:48:30She died in 1879.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44But photography was not only involved with the serious-minded
0:48:44 > 0:48:46ideas of artistic beauty -
0:48:46 > 0:48:49further technical improvement allowed the sheer fun of life
0:48:49 > 0:48:51to be pictured, too.
0:48:53 > 0:48:57In 1892, amateur photographer Paul Martin came here
0:48:57 > 0:48:58to Great Yarmouth.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02He was by trade a wood engraver,
0:49:02 > 0:49:05creating illustrations for newspapers and magazines,
0:49:05 > 0:49:09often, as we have seen, from photographic images.
0:49:09 > 0:49:13But on lunch breaks near his London workplace and on holidays,
0:49:13 > 0:49:15Martin always had a camera with him,
0:49:15 > 0:49:19and he was greatly helped by the arrival of dry plate photography.
0:49:21 > 0:49:23As a photographer, I love this old language.
0:49:23 > 0:49:27"Snapshot plates, the best possible plates for rapid hand camerawork
0:49:27 > 0:49:30"and all extremely quick exposures."
0:49:30 > 0:49:34And this great line, "To be opened only in dull, ruby light."
0:49:37 > 0:49:40And here we have them - these are called dry plates.
0:49:40 > 0:49:44These made photographers' lives so much easier.
0:49:44 > 0:49:45You bought them ready-made.
0:49:45 > 0:49:47You took your picture, then you took them home
0:49:47 > 0:49:49and processed at your leisure.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52No more dragging around the portable darkroom and those horrible,
0:49:52 > 0:49:54smelly chemicals.
0:49:54 > 0:49:58Dry plates also led to the use of portable cameras like this.
0:50:00 > 0:50:04This dry plate photography led to even quicker exposures
0:50:04 > 0:50:05of a second or less.
0:50:06 > 0:50:11You now needed a mechanical aid to control light entering the camera,
0:50:11 > 0:50:13so the shutter was introduced.
0:50:17 > 0:50:21And quicker exposures also meant you no longer needed a tripod,
0:50:21 > 0:50:25and as a consequence cameras became smaller and hand-held.
0:50:26 > 0:50:28With this new technology,
0:50:28 > 0:50:33Paul Martin was able to take a new kind of photograph - the snapshot.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41Before, photography was a self-conscious exercise,
0:50:41 > 0:50:43everything rigorously staged and composed.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48Now, a photographer like Martin was liberated
0:50:48 > 0:50:53to be so much more spontaneous and instinctive in his picture taking.
0:50:53 > 0:50:56But this in turn demanded that snappers learn the discipline
0:50:56 > 0:50:58of waiting for the right shot.
0:51:04 > 0:51:08It appears that Paul Martin had just the right temperament and the
0:51:08 > 0:51:11patience to wait for what the great French photographer Cartier-Bresson
0:51:11 > 0:51:13called "the decisive moment".
0:51:20 > 0:51:24Look again at Martin's photographs and you can appreciate this.
0:51:36 > 0:51:38But, as the Victorian age came to a close,
0:51:38 > 0:51:41photography witnessed not only what was being gained,
0:51:41 > 0:51:44but also what was being lost.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54Only miles inland from the Norfolk coast,
0:51:54 > 0:51:58a photographer set about recording a way of life he feared
0:51:58 > 0:51:59was under threat.
0:52:00 > 0:52:03And in doing, so he would create some of the most beautiful
0:52:03 > 0:52:05photographic images yet seen.
0:52:11 > 0:52:14His name was Peter Henry Emerson,
0:52:14 > 0:52:18heir to a fortune made from sugar plantations in Cuba
0:52:18 > 0:52:19and a trained physician.
0:52:21 > 0:52:23Emerson loved to sail his traditional wherry boat
0:52:23 > 0:52:26on the rivers and inlets of the Norfolk broads,
0:52:26 > 0:52:29and this gave him an intimate knowledge of the land and the people
0:52:29 > 0:52:33who worked the water and the marshes.
0:52:33 > 0:52:37In 1886 Emerson collaborated with the artist TF Goodall
0:52:37 > 0:52:38to produce a book,
0:52:38 > 0:52:41Life And Landscape On The Norfolk Broads.
0:52:42 > 0:52:48In its pages are lovely, painterly, impressionistic photographs.
0:52:48 > 0:52:52Many of these are portrayals of men and women in variety of traditional
0:52:52 > 0:52:53working practices,
0:52:53 > 0:52:58described in their titles like this one - Ricking the Reed.
0:53:00 > 0:53:02Poling the Marsh Hay.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08And Gunner Working up to Fowl.
0:53:12 > 0:53:15To find out about the man and his work,
0:53:15 > 0:53:19I took a boat trip in the company of his great-grandson Stephen Hyde,
0:53:19 > 0:53:21himself a professional photographer.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27Moored up, I asked Stephen about a couple of photographs that offer up
0:53:27 > 0:53:30deeper meanings on closer inspection.
0:53:31 > 0:53:33Tell us about this photograph.
0:53:33 > 0:53:38At first sight this photograph is just a classic Emerson beautiful
0:53:38 > 0:53:41photograph and it's entitled The Old Order and the New.
0:53:41 > 0:53:43And at first you might wonder why it's called that,
0:53:43 > 0:53:48because to our eyes it seems like all the old order.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51And if you look carefully, right to the left-hand side
0:53:51 > 0:53:55of the photograph, you see an old derelict windmill.
0:53:55 > 0:53:59Now these mills were used for draining the marshes
0:53:59 > 0:54:01to make the land... to reclaim the land,
0:54:01 > 0:54:03make it more sort of profitable.
0:54:03 > 0:54:09And next to it is the new modern version of the same thing,
0:54:09 > 0:54:10which is a steam-driven mill,
0:54:10 > 0:54:13and that's with the smoke coming out.
0:54:13 > 0:54:19And to Emerson this was a key sort of symbol of how life was changing.
0:54:19 > 0:54:21And how it was threatened?
0:54:21 > 0:54:27Absolutely. And he knew that this way of life was disappearing and the
0:54:27 > 0:54:33steam mill here is just one symbol of the new world,
0:54:33 > 0:54:36what he knew was going to sort of take over from now on.
0:54:37 > 0:54:41One seemingly idyllic image, Gathering Water-Lilies,
0:54:41 > 0:54:44we now know as another portrait of working life,
0:54:44 > 0:54:47thanks to the research of writer John Taylor.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51There's a story behind this photograph, isn't there?
0:54:51 > 0:54:54Absolutely. The lady's not just leaning over to pick a lovely flower
0:54:54 > 0:54:58which she happened to see - they would harvest the water lilies
0:54:58 > 0:55:02and use them as a bait and a lure for catching tench.
0:55:02 > 0:55:06They'd put them in bow nets, big, round bow nets,
0:55:06 > 0:55:10and they would then lower the bow nets into the water
0:55:10 > 0:55:15and the tench would see the water lilies and be attracted to them
0:55:15 > 0:55:16and swim into the nets.
0:55:17 > 0:55:22We know that the lady picking up the water lily is his good friend
0:55:22 > 0:55:27and collaborator TF Goodall, the artist, his fiancee,
0:55:27 > 0:55:30and the man in the boat is her father.
0:55:30 > 0:55:32And so they planned this meticulously.
0:55:32 > 0:55:36So I think this is one of his more successful works,
0:55:36 > 0:55:39where he's managed to make a photograph rather than
0:55:39 > 0:55:44take a photograph but do it in such a way that it actually looks
0:55:44 > 0:55:48totally genuine and just like somebody's swivelled round,
0:55:48 > 0:55:52seen the scene and gone "click", where it's not that at all.
0:55:53 > 0:55:55As well as being a skilled practitioner,
0:55:55 > 0:55:59Emerson had strong views on photography, how it should be done,
0:55:59 > 0:56:00and what it was for.
0:56:02 > 0:56:05He had intellectual discussions the whole time.
0:56:05 > 0:56:06He wrote a thick book.
0:56:06 > 0:56:11And one of his great thoughts was that focus should not be sharp
0:56:11 > 0:56:15all the way through. And he called this naturalistic photography.
0:56:15 > 0:56:17There were people around at the time who said,
0:56:17 > 0:56:21"Look how good my camera is, I can get every leaf perfectly sharp."
0:56:21 > 0:56:24Well, for him, that was the antithesis of what you should do.
0:56:24 > 0:56:26You should see... The camera,
0:56:26 > 0:56:29the photograph should see what the human eye sees.
0:56:29 > 0:56:34So as I look at you, the trees over their go slightly fuzzy...
0:56:34 > 0:56:37- Your eye is travelling through the photograph?- Absolutely.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42Whatever his theorising, and it was often contradictory,
0:56:42 > 0:56:45what remains for me are Emerson's photographs.
0:56:47 > 0:56:50Each one a stunning historical record that confirms that,
0:56:50 > 0:56:54by the century's end, the camera had become the pre-eminent way
0:56:54 > 0:56:57to memorialise the national story.
0:57:03 > 0:57:08To end this episode, I've gone from Norfolk back to Wiltshire
0:57:08 > 0:57:10and Lacock Abbey where I began.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16On reflection, and what impresses me most,
0:57:16 > 0:57:21is how far photography had travelled in the 60 years since that first
0:57:21 > 0:57:25experiment by Fox Talbot, here by this window.
0:57:27 > 0:57:31And I'm left inspired, but also humbled,
0:57:31 > 0:57:35because the early pioneers of my trade did so much
0:57:35 > 0:57:38during such poignantly short working lives.
0:57:38 > 0:57:44From this, in 1835, to this in 1886, it's a remarkable achievement.
0:57:44 > 0:57:50Has any other art practice matured so quickly and with such confidence?
0:57:50 > 0:57:54Yet this was just the beginning as a new century beckoned.
0:57:56 > 0:57:58Next on Britain in Focus...
0:57:58 > 0:58:02The photograph makes newspapers and magazines mediums for seeing
0:58:02 > 0:58:04as well as reading.
0:58:04 > 0:58:08Photographers try to find a way of recording the horror
0:58:08 > 0:58:10of 20th-century genocide.
0:58:11 > 0:58:14The artistry of Alvin Langdon Coburn...
0:58:16 > 0:58:18..and the glittering world of Cecil Beaton.