The technological period that followed Talbot’s method in the history of British and world photography is associated with the introduction of the wet collodion process in 1851. The slider presents works by the inventor of this photographic technique — Frederick Scott Archer.
Chapter House, Rochester Cathedral
United Kingdom, c. 1851
In the wet collodion process, the image was fixed not on paper but on a glass plate coated with a light-sensitive collodion layer. Unlike Talbot’s calotypes, the resulting images were sharp and highly detailed. This is how contemporaries described it:
“None of the fathers of paper-based light-drawing, the great masters of the art, ever succeeded in producing a truly perfect positive print… Why? Simply because the light performs its pictorial work through paper — a material only semi-transparent, composed of a fibrous mass… One must abandon paper and turn to glass… only through glass can truly perfect positive prints be obtained, and in great quantity.” Biblioteka dlya chteniya, 1843, vol. 59, pp. 46–47.
“None of the fathers of paper-based light-drawing, the great masters of the art, ever succeeded in producing a truly perfect positive print… Why? Simply because the light performs its pictorial work through paper — a material only semi-transparent, composed of a fibrous mass… One must abandon paper and turn to glass… only through glass can truly perfect positive prints be obtained, and in great quantity.”
In addition to remarkable sharpness, the method allowed for a significant reduction in exposure time compared with either daguerreotypes or calotypes.
Archer, unfortunately, never patented his invention and died in poverty, even though his method completely transformed the photographic industry of the 19th century.
One of the most prominent and well-known photographers who used the wet collodion process was the British photographer Roger Fenton.
These works relate to the Crimean campaign, during which Roger Fenton, serving as a war photographer, documented the daily life of the allied armies — including camp sites, group
Last updated on 17.12.2025
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