Salt Prints and Calotypes
The
calotype (from the Greek meaning beautiful picture) was the invention
of Englishman William Henry Fox Talbot, who announced his invention within
two weeks of Daguerrres in 1839. Two years later he patented his paper
photograph. The process produced a paper negative and the positives were
on salted paper (Salt prints).
The calotype negative made it possible for
multiple images, of varying quality, to be made. However there were far
less practitioners of the art, as the daguerreotype was the choice of
the day.
Due to the flimsy paper they were printed
on and the effects of one hundred and fifty years of wear and tear, only
a small quantity of calotypes and salted paper prints have survived.
Carte de visites, Cabinet Cards
& Tintypes
Tintypes
were another version of the use of Collodion. In this case the medium
was tin instead of glass. The advantage of tin was that it was not fragile,
could be sent through the mail and could be easily carried. They were
also relatively inexpensive.
The Carte de visite, also used collodian, and was invented by the famous
French photographer Andre Disderi in 1854. Their similarity to a visiting
card and the relatively easy production, made them hugely successful.
People not only wanted to have their own carte de visites, they wanted
cartes of famous personalities from royalty to actors, which they put
in albums alongside of their family portraits.
In 1866 the demand for collectible cartes
led to the invention of the cabinet card. These larger images, averaging
5 _" x 4" were originally created for theatrical portraits of
the famous actors and actresses of the day, but soon came the demand from
the public for their own cabinet cards.
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