Victorian Selfie Sensation

E

VERY second of every day millions of images are captured and shared across the world with litle or no thought given

as to how it all started. More than 1.8 billion photographs are uploaded to the internet each day. In any two-minute period more pictures are taken than during the whole of the 19th century when the art was first pioneered.

Now, a major new exhibition exploring the Victorian craze for photography examines how some of the early pioneers have influenced the way we capture images today.

Above:

Gathering Water Lilies by Peter Harry Emerson, 1886, platinum print. © Howarth- Loomes Collection at National Museums Scotland

The exhibition at the National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh takes visitors back to the very beginnings of photography in 1839.

It traces its evolution from a scientific art practised by a few wealthy individuals to a global phenomenon, practised on an industrial scale.

August 2015 81

Daguerreotype camera, made by A Giroux et Cie, 1839© National Museums Scotland