'The Chemist'
Born: 30th August 1814; Hertford, Hertfordshire, England
Died: 1st May 1857; Bloomsbury, London, England
Frederick Scott Archer (FSA) was without doubt one of the great pioneers of early photography, whose name should without doubt stand near to, if not alongside the likes of Joseph Nicephore, Niepce, Louis Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot.
The publication of his discovery in 1851 of the so called wet collodion process revolutionized photography, making it easier to obtain images with exposures of a few seconds only, and which also enabled multiple positive copies to be quickly made from the same glass negative plate; unlike the Daguerreotype process which produced a one off positive image on a silvered copper plate which could not be readily replicated. The Wet Collodion Plate was the preferred photographic process from its introduction in the early 1850s until the advent of the mass produced Dry Gelatin Plate in the late 1870s and early 1880s.
The importance of Archer’s work to Photography was recognized by Lady Margaret Huggins, when in her 1889 obituary of the great pioneering Astrophotographer Warren De La Rue she wrote of the Collodion Process:
"In 1851 Scott Archer and Dr. Diamond introduced the collodion process in practical form, and this finally prepared the way for such a worker as Mr. De La Rue; for the introduction of the collodion process was an event in photography second only in importance to the discovery by Daguerre in 1839."
Yet at the time of his death in 1857, although well respected by his photographic colleagues, he was largely unrecognised by the rest of the public at large; certainly unrewarded and definitely in impoverished circumstances. Even today he is not as well known as the other early photographic pioneers. The 150th Anniversary of his death in 2007 came and went largely unnoticed by the world, despite ample opportunity in the years since his death for historians to reassess his contribution to the development of photography.
To read more on his life and work read the eBook chapter on Frederick Scott Archer, or buy the Book 'Catchers of the Light'.
Frederick Scott Archer's Grave, Kensal Green Cemetery, London, Photograph Courtesy of Sean MacKenna
Buy the eBook or Printed Book at the 'Catchers of the Light' shop.