One of the features of photography in the nineteenth century that resonates most strikingly with our own time is the complexity and precariousness of photography as a business. In photography’s earliest years, as in our own time, converting skill with and passion for the medium into an ongoing moneymaking endeavor proved a challenge.
Begin with this question: if you were to imagine yourself as a photographer in the nineteenth century, what kind of a photographer would you be, and how would you contrive to earn a living from the medium?
Would you open a portrait studio, or join a geological expedition? Would you use your skill with the camera to produce serious scientific documents or to dupe the public with faked pictures of ghosts, fairies, or spirits? Would you take images of faraway wars in hopes of arousing commercial interest back home?
