1800s-Era Portraits of Patients from Notorious British Psychiatric Hospital
These are the portraits of some of the men and women who attended the infamous Bethlem Royal Hospital, better known as Bedlam, in the 1800s.
Fascinating Book of Victorian Mugshot Photos is Saved from a Dumpster
A police photo album from the Victorian era that features criminal mugshots will go to auction after it was saved from a dumpster.
A Rare Horse-Drawn 19th-Century Photography Studio Is Up For Auction
A traveling photography studio that was pulled around the English seaside by horses from the 1860s onwards will go up for auction.
Rare Collection of 405 Vintage Cameras Worth $30,000 For Sale
A rare collection of 405 vintage film cameras will go up for auction where it's expected to sell for over $30,000.
Victorian Photos Show the Bizarre Workouts That Led to Modern Gyms
Gyms are commonplace in the 21st century as are the machines within them. But back in the 19th century when lifting weights didn't exist, it took a series of bizarre photographs to educate the world on a new way to improve fitness.
Spirit Photography: 19th-Century Innovation in Bereavement Rituals Was Likely Invented by a Woman
Spirit photography was an important development within bereavement rituals of the early 1860s.
How Black People in the 19th Century Used Photography as a Tool for Social Change
Frederick Douglass is perhaps best known as an abolitionist and intellectual. But he was also the most photographed American of the 19th century. And he encouraged the use of photography to promote social change for Black equality.
How Hand-Painted Photographs Helped Introduce Japan to the World
When you see the term "colorized photo" you probably imagine skilled retouchers working in Photoshop, or perhaps a machine learning algorithm that does that same work automatically. But the original colorized photos were hand-painted prints made from glass plate negatives. And, as Vox explains, the best of these images came out of Japan.
Night Sky Photos in the Style of 19th-Century Pictorialism
For the past several years, German freelance photographer Nikita Roytman has been working on a personal photo project in which he does landscape astrophotography in the style and mood of the 19th-century Pictorialism movement. The series is titled "Nocturnal Mood Of Time."
Portraits of 19th-Century Characters with 21st-Century Gadgets
For his personal project "Gold Rush," Los Angeles-based photographer Qingjian Meng combines two different eras. The subjects look like they're from the 19th century, except each of the 8 people is using some piece of technology from the 21st century.
Frederick Douglass Was the Most Photographed American of the 19th Century
Do you know who the most photographed American of the 19th century was? It's not George Custer (155 photos) or Walt Whitman or Abraham Lincoln (130 each). The person with the most portraits made of them in the 1800s was Frederick Douglass, the African-American abolitionist, speaker, writer, and statesman.
Modern-Day Street Photographs of England Captured with a 130-Year-Old Camera
What's a photographer to do when they're in possession of a 130-year-old wooden camera and a 100-year-old lens, capable of capturing images using the wet plate collodion process?
Well, if you’re Jonathan Keys, you set out on a mission to document the modern world around you using tools that are all but ancient in the world of photography... and you get spectacular results for your effort.
Julia Margaret Cameron: A Contemporary Photographer Stuck in the 19th Century
In 1863, at the age of forty-eight, Julia Margaret Cameron received her first camera. A mother of six children, the gift quickly spawned a hobby that turned into a life-long passion, and her approach to photography is one that still influences photographers to this day.
Student Breaks 19th Century Statue In an Attempt to Grab a #Selfie
Selfies. We can't seem to get enough of them. And while they're somewhat awkward and obnoxious at times, they're rather harmless, innocent and don't cause any damage, right? Wrong. Or at least it was in the case of a student who reportedly broke an early 19th century statue in a museum (see update) in Milan, Italy.
Amazing 19th Century Photographs of the American West by Timothy O’Sullivan
Photographer Timothy H. O'Sullivan is perhaps best known for his photos of the Civil War, which include his famous "Harvest of Death" photo. But after covering the war, O'Sullivan decided to strike out West, and when he came back, he brought with him some of the earliest photos of the (quite literally) "wild" American West.
19th Century London Street Photography by John Thomson
There's some debate over who the "father" of street photography was. Although Frenchman Eugene Atget is often granted this title, his work was mainly architectural, putting people second.
But there's another, lesser-known name that enters the picture (pardon the pun) as early as if not earlier than Atget: a Scotsman by the name of John Thomson.
Lomography Resurrects the 19th Century Petzval Lens for Canon and Nikon SLRs
Want to shoot with the oldest looking lens on the block? Lomography today announced that it has brought an old school lens back from the dead. It's the Petzval lens, originally introduced by optic inventor Joseph Petzval back in 1840. Lomo has reinvented and reengineered the lens for modern day Canon and Nikon SLR cameras.
Artists & Alchemists: A Film About the Revival of Old School Photography
Here’s an interesting trailer for Artists & Alchemists, a documentary film coming out …