This is the first book to tell the story of British photography as a coherent whole, from the pioneers of early photography to photographers today who may display their images on websites, as projections or on i-Pods. The authors have travelled the length and breadth of the UK, both researching well-known oeuvres and uncovering many lost masterpieces.
As well as the famous names - William Henry Fox Talbot, Lewis Carroll, Julia Margaret Cameron, Bill Brandt, Madame Yevonde, Angus McBean, Susan Lipper and Tom Hunter among them - they have examined postcards, family albums, photographic illustration in books, medical photographs, propoganda and social documents. Previous imbalances in the available history of British photography have been addressed, not least by the inclusion of more women photographers and photographers from Britain's ethinic minorities. Through their exhaustive research, the authors demonstrate the extraordinary range and diversity of roles that photography has played in British cultural life over the past one-and-a-half centuries.