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| 1. |  | M. de St. Croix 1839 Parliament Street from Trafalgar Square Daguerreotype Victoria and Albert Museum Museum number: PH.1-1986 Summary information provided by the V&A (Accessed: 7 April 2010). This is the oldest photograph in the Museum's collection. It is a daguerreotype, a unique image formed on a silvered copper plate. The daguerreotype was the first photographic process, publicised in January 1839. It was named after its inventor, Louis Daguerre. Just a few weeks later the first public demonstration of the daguerreotype in London was organised by a Monsieur de St Croix. This is therefore among the very first photographs taken in London. The scene is reversed - as is characteristic of the process - and the image on the shiny surface is difficult to read. However, once caught at the correct angle, amazing detail emerges. In the foreground there is a statue of Charles I and in the distance the royal Banqueting House. There are also traces of the people who stayed still long enough to register on the exposure, which probably lasted some minutes. |
| 2. |  | Henry Fox Talbot 1843 Trafalgar Square with Nelsons Column during construction, London Calotype 171 x 212 mm Det Nationale Fotomuseum (National Museum of Photography) Danish National Museum of Photography (acc. nr. 1967-337/2) |
| 3. |  | Henry Fox Talbot 1844 (published) Westminster Abbey [The Pencil of Nature, Part 6, pl. 22] Calotype Hans P. Kraus, Jr., Inc. Taken from the reproductions in Larry J. Schaaf, H. Fox Talbot's The Pencil of Nature; Anniversary Facsimile (New York: Hans P. Kraus, Jr. Inc., 1989). The originals selected for this publication were the best single examples available for each plate. Not to be reproduced without permission of H.P. Kraus, Jr. The stately edifices of the British Metropolis too frequently assume from the influence of our smoky atmosphere such a swarthy hue as wholly to obliterate the natural appearance of the stone of which they are constructed. This sooty covering destroys all harmony of colour, and leaves only the grandeur of form and proportions. This picture of Westminster Abbey is an instance of it; the facade of the building being strongly and somewhat capriciously darkened by the atmospheric influence. H. Fox Talbot, The Pencil of Nature, (London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1844) |
| 4. |  | Henry Fox Talbot 1845 (ca) The Hungerford Bridge, London Salt print, from calotype 6.65 x 8.40 in Source requested As invented by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1839, the photographic negative and the positive prints it produced were both made of paper. This gave the image a sketchy, Romantic quality that appealed to artistic tastes of the day, including Talbot's. But the nostalgia for ancient architecture, unsullied nature, and peasant life instilled by such art was at odds with the progress toward a mechanized, industrialized future that inventions like photography and engineering feats like the Hungerford Bridge promised. The bridge was built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who was, like Talbot, a founding genius of new technologies. He pioneered the construction of suspension bridges, tunnels, steamships and the Great Western Railway, where Talbot's cousin Kit was a director. But Talbot wasn't a single-minded Progressive like Brunel. That he was of two minds is evident from the way he put in the foreground of his photograph, as if to soften the bridge's effect, the picturesque old skiffs that had ferried goods across the Thames before the bridge existed. In addition to being an inventor, Talbot was a country squire, having inherited an ancestral home when only six months old. Thus, despite being an enthusiast of railroads who held a locomotion patent himself, he tied up Brunel in court when the railroad tycoon sought a right of way through part of the Talbot land. Though Hungerford Bridge was demolished only fifteen years after being built, one memorial to Brunel that has outlasted most of what he built is a portrait made in 1857. [This print was in The Gilman Paper Company Collection, New York and is listed as such in Larry Schaaf "The Photographic Art of William Henry Fox Talbot" (2000). A part of that collection was transferred to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.] |
| 5. |  | Henry Hart 1847 (ca) -1857 Westminster Bridge Salted paper print 20.1 x 24.7 cm irreg. (image) NGV - National Gallery of Victoria Accession number: 1999.425, Presented through The Art Foundation of Victoria by David and Verdine Crawford, Members, 1999 |
| 6. |  | Henry Hart 1847 (ca) -1857 Horse guards Salted paper print 20.7 x 24.5 cm (image) NGV - National Gallery of Victoria Accession number: 1999.416, Presented through The Art Foundation of Victoria by David and Verdine Crawford, Members, 1999 |
| 7. |  | Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gros 1851 Bridge and Boats on the Thames Daguerreotype Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département des Estampes et de la Photographie Collection Georges Sirot, Rés. Eg8-279, Identifiant: ark:/12148/btv1b69034910 |
| 8. |  | John Charles Stovin 1862 (exhibited) Two microphotographs with titles that match descriptions of full-sized photographs displayed by Stovin at the 1862 London Exposition Microphotograph slides Private collection of Professor Brian Stevenson, Ph.D. The other nine exhibited photographs were of Government Offices, All Souls Church, Statue of the Duke of Wellington, Trafalgar Square, Somerset House (two different views), The Tower, Westminster Hospital, and Houses of Parliament. According to Nicol (1881), Stovin expanded this series of microphotographs to 36 different views. |
| 9. |  | Stephen Ayling 1867 Westminster, Henry VII Chapel Exterior and Westminster Hall Albumen Print 41.5 x 55.5 cm Victoria and Albert Museum Museum Number: 61:116 |
| 10. |  | Francis Frith 1860-1870 943 Trafalgar Square, London Albumen Print 17 x 22 cm (image) 16.4 x 21 cm (mount) Victoria and Albert Museum Museum number: E.208:2018-1994, Acquired from F. Frith and Company, 1954 |
| 11. |  | Henry Dixon 1882 London - Banqueting House Whitehall [The Society for photographing relics of old London (No. 68)] Carbon print 9 x 7 in (ca) Eastern Window (Jan van der Wal) Courtesy of Jan van der Wal (gb17-02) |
| 12. |  | Henry Dixon 1885 London - Middle Temple - Hall [The Society for photographing relics of old London (No. 102)] Carbon print 9 x 7 in (ca) Eastern Window (Jan van der Wal) Courtesy of Jan van der Wal (gb18-02) |
| 13. |  | Unidentified photographer / artist n.d. Henry VII's Lady Chapel (Henry VII's Chapel), Westminster Abbey, London, England Albumen print 7.6 x 7 cm The Courtauld Institute of Art Copyright: © Courtauld Institute of Art , Conway Collections |
| 14. |  | James Valentine n.d. Royal Albert Hall, London, England Albumen print 19 x 29.3 cm The Courtauld Institute of Art Copyright: © Courtauld Institute of Art , Conway Collections |
| 15. |  | Hector Colard 1896 Fine day in London [Photo-Club de Paris / 1896, Pl. X] Heliogravure / Photogravure 14.4 x 18.3 cm Photoseed Photograph courtesy PhotoSeed.com Country: Belgium: Brussels Colard, (1851-1923) was an important promoter of artistic photography in Belgium. Besides being a member of the British Linked Ring Brotherhood and the Photo-Club de Paris, Colard translated at least three of Henry Peach Robinson's books on photography and the Alfred Horsley Hinton book The Art of Landscape Photography (1894). Plate (Graveur) by Fillon et Heuse Printed by Ateliers Charles Wittmann Included in the "Troisième Exposition d'Art Photographique" of the Photo-Club of Paris (1896) |
| 16. |  | Alvin Langdon Coburn 1899-1909 London. Bridge over the Thames and St. Paul's Cathedral Photogravure 18.9 x 17.3 cm; image: 17.7 x 16.4 cm National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada Courtesy of the National Gallery of Canada (no. 21465), Purchased 1971 |
| 17. |  | Valentine & Sons 1897, 20 June Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee procession crossing London Bridge [National Photographic Record and Survey] Albumen print mounted on card with hand written ink notation Victoria and Albert Museum Museum Number: E.3615-2000 |
| 18. |  | Alvin Langdon Coburn 1905 Hyde Park Corner, London Photogravure (London Portfolio, Pl.5, 1909) 21 x 16.6 cm (8 x 6.5 ) Galerie Johannes Faber |
| 19. |  | Chusseau-Flaviens 1900-1919 (ca) Petty Coat Lane Angleterre/Londres Negative, gelatin on glass 9 x 12 cm George Eastman Museum Record Id: 1975:0112:2177 |
| 20. |  | Alvin Langdon Coburn 1910 Houses of Parliament [London] Photogravure 17 x 22.6 cm Private collection |
| 21. |  | Alvin Langdon Coburn 1910 London Bridge [London] Photogravure 16.8 x 20.7 cm Private collection |
| 22. |  | Morrison & Burdekin 1934 (published) Plate from John Morrison and Harold Burdekin London Night (Collins, 1934) Book plate Private collection of Lance Keimig |
| 23. |  | Herbert Mason 1940, 29 December St Paul's Cathedral, rising above the bombed London skyline, is shrouded in smoke during the Blitz. Gelatin silver print Imperial War Museum © Daily Mail, Imperial War Museum, Ministry of Information Second World War Press Agency Print Collection (HU 36220A 4700-09) |
| 24. |  | David Moore 1952 (ca) St Pauls Cathedral from Bankside, London [100 Photographs, pl. 023] Gelatin silver print David Moore Estate © Courtesy of the David Moore Estate David Moore realised that his night photograph of Wren's masterpiece could not have been made a decade earlier, commenting: Some years before this picture was made, searchlights rather than floodlights swept the sky above London. During the Battle of Britain, German bombers destroyed much of the built environment surrounding St Paul's. The cathedral survived à Alan Davies, The State Library of NSW This photograph was included in the David Moore 100 Photographs series that toured the State Library of NSW (titled David Moore 100 photographs) in late 2005. The exhibition then travelled to Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne, in 2006, changing its title to David Moore A Vision, 1927-2003; and then to Bendigo Art Gallery (2006), Shepparton Art Gallery (2006), Albury Regional Art Gallery (2007), Gold Coast City Art Gallery (2007), Wollongong City Gallery (2007), Mildura Arts Centre (2008), and finally to LaTrobe Regional Gallery (2008). A Limited Edition of the series was also produced. |
| 25. |  | Grace Robertson 1948 A Pea-souper Fog, London Barry Singer Gallery |
| 26. |  | Roger Mayne 1960 Old Railway in London Gelatin silver print 6 5/8 x 9 15/15 in Gitterman Gallery |
| 27. |  | Michael Kenna 1983 Hungerford Railway Bridge, London, England Gelatin silver print 6 x 9 1/2 in a 20 x 16 mat Afterimage Gallery |
| 28. |  | Maslen & Mehra n.d. European wolf and red squirrel, Docklands, London [Native series - London] Provided by the artists - Maslen and Mehra |
| 29. |  | Thomas Kellner 2005 43#09 London, British Museum [Dancing Walls] C-print 68.2 x 69.7 cm / 26.6 x 27.2 in Provided by the artist - Thomas Kellner |
| 30. |  | Jacob Carter 2006 London [River Thames] Expired film stock 40 x 50 cm Provided by the artist - Jacob Carter |