Luminous-Lint - for collectors and connoisseurs of fine photography
HOME  BACK>>> Subscriptions <<< | Testimonials | Login |

Getting around

 

HomeContentsVisual IndexesOnline ExhibitionsPhotographersGalleries and DealersThemes
AbstractEroticaFashionLandscapeNaturePhotojournalismPhotomontagePictorialismPortraitScientificStill lifeStreetWar
CalendarsTimelinesTechniquesLibrarySupport 
 

Stereographs Project

 
   Introduction 
   Photographers 
      A B C D E F G H  
      I J K L M N O P  
      Q R S T U V W X  
      Y Z  
   Locations 
   Themes 
   Backlists
 

HomeContents > People > Photographers > Peter Le Neve Foster

Dates:  1809 - 1879
Active:  UK
 
  
 
  
Stereographs project 
  
Business locations 
  
Surrey, England, UK 
  
"Photo'd. by..."; views rare [2], both of unid. rural home, on early ivory SCMs with hand-written ID. 
  
T.K. Treadwell & William C. Darrah (Compiled by), Wolfgang, Sell (Updated by), 11/28/2003, Photographers of the World (Non-USA), (National Stereoscopic Association)
Credit: National Stereoscopic Association with corrections and additions by Alan Griffiths and others.
NOTE: You are probably here because you have a stereograph to identify. Please email good quality copies of the front and back to alan@luminous-lint.com so we can create reference collections for all.

Preparing biographies

Approved biography for Peter Le Neve Foster
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA)

 
  
Foster’s family was long involved with the Society of Arts, and after becoming a lawyer he was elected into the society. After a brief stint as treasurer, Foster (over the strenuous objections of Robert Hunt) was elected secretary of the society in 1853, a full-time position that gave him considerable influence over matters of art and science. In 1847 Foster joined with Peter Wickens Fry and a few others in an informal group popularly known as the Calotype Club, the first indication of his interest in the new art. He began producing calotypes in the late 1840s, many of which survive today. Foster helped plan the Great Exhibition of 1851, which brought photography to a wide public for the first time, and even more importantly the groundbreaking exhibition at the Society of Arts in 1852. While he did not himself exhibit in the latter, Foster took an active role in the formation of the Photographic Society in London the following year, later gracefully conceding defeat in his attempts to have it remain a part of the Society of Arts. Foster first began showing his waxed-paper views in the 1854 exhibitions of Photographic Society and the Royal Infirmary Fund, and was instrumental in setting up Society of Arts touring exhibitions from 1854 to 1856, contributing waxed-paper views. For the Photographic Society’s 1860 exhibition, Foster turned to the turpentine waxed-paper process for his “untouched” view of the Chelsea Suspension Bridge. At the 1862 International Exhibition in London two years later, he again used the turpentine process to depict a suspension bridge, this time at Battersea. Foster’s last known contribution to an exhibition was a group of twelve portraits in the 1865 Dublin International Exhibition; the process was not specified but was almost certainly collodion. Throughout the 1850s Foster served as a critical link between the long-established Society of Arts and the youthful Photographic Society. He maintained an interest in photography until the end of his life, most notably photographing the erection of Cleopatra’s Needle on the Thames embankment the year before he died. 
  
Roger Taylor & Larry J. Schaaf Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840-1860 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2007) 
  
This biography is courtesy and copyright of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is included here with permission. 
  
Date last updated: 4 Nov 2012. 
  
SHARED BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION PROJECT 
  
We welcome institutions and scholars willing to test the sharing of biographies for the benefit of the photo-history community. The biography above is a part of this trial.
 
If you find any errors please email us details so they can be corrected as soon as possible.
 
  

Further research

 
 Premium content for those who want to understand photography
 
References are available for subscribers.There is so much more to explore when you subscribe. 
Subscriptions 
 
Portraits 
  
If you have a portrait of this photographer or know of the whereabouts of one we would be most grateful. 
  
alan@luminous-lint.com
 
  
Family history 
  
If you are related to this photographer and interested in tracking down your extended family we can place a note here for you to help. It is free and you would be amazed who gets in touch. 
  
alan@luminous-lint.com
 
  
 
  

Visual indexes

 
 Premium content for those who want to understand photography
 
Visual indexes for this photographer are available for subscribers.There is so much more to explore when you subscribe. 
Subscriptions 
 
  
 
  
 
  
HOME  BACK>>> Subscriptions <<< | Testimonials | Login |
 Facebook LuminousLint 
 Twitter @LuminousLint