In the late 'fifties Pouncy's Gum Bichromate process and Poitevin's Carbon process were added to the existing printing media. The former received little atten tion but Carbon was developed commercially by Swan and the Autotype Co. and was taken up slowly by photographers.
The advent of Mrs. Julia Margaret Cameron in 1864 marks the next stage in pictorial development. The casual gift of a camera and lens by her daughter led her to take up photography at the age of fifty with all the volcanic energy of her temperament. She was one of a highly gifted family and had been closely associated with Watts and the painters of the Pre-Raphaelite school so that she brought an unconventional mind to the exercise of the new art. Her lens was of an un corrected type and without waiting to learn the correct adjust ments, she proceeded to use it in the manner that suited herself. She broke through all conventions and produced a series of heads distinguished by great breadth of modelling; indeed, in the case of the Carlyle and Herschell, by a violence of treatment that rather horrified the photographers of her time. The reviews of the exhibitions made some caustic comments on her methods (Photo. Journal, 1864. Vol. 9, p. 87. 1865. Vol.o, p. 117) which were perhaps not altogether unjustified. She received, how ever, praise and encouragement from G. F. Watts and other men of discernment. As she was on intimate terms with many of the most eminent people of her day, her pictures have an interest beyond that of their artistic merits. The best of her work must
certainly rank amongst the photographic masterpieces of all time. "The Guardian Angel" is one of her best known works. She was apt to be careless in her methods. Most of her original silver albumen prints have now faded and were it not that her principal works were issued in autotype carbon, we could now hardly form a just estimate of her achievement.
Willis brought out his Platinotype process in 1873 but it made little headway at first as a license was re quired to work it. Yet it fulfils the chief desideratum of the pic torialist in that it gives an image in permanent pigment on pure paper without the interposition of a gelatine or other film. The Oil Transfer process is the only other one that meets the same requirement. The next few years were occupied in the transition from the wet collodion to the dry gelatino-bromide plate and from albumen to the gelatino-bromide printing papers. Pictorial ism shows no very marked movement during this period and it was not until 1888 and onwards that a new move was discernible. The dry plate and the invention of the hand camera were vastly enlarging the numbers who were being attracted to photography as a hobby and this very largely contributed to the advance ment of pictorial work. The leading names at this time were Col. Joseph Gale, Frederick Hollyer, Frank Sutcliffe of Whitby, Payne Jennings, B. Gay Wilkinson and J. B. B. Welling ton.