The symposium A New Power: Photography 1800-1850 (18 March 2023) presents recent research which considers the history of photographic invention and innovation in a truly global context and addresses the mid-19th-century history of photography through current critical concerns such as ecological change, imperial power, ethnicity and gender. The symposium was held at the Bodleian’s Weston Library for Special Collections in Oxford, coinciding with two exhibitions curated by Professor Geoffrey Batchen: ‘A New Power: Photography in Britain, 1800-1850,’ and ‘Bright Sparks: Photography and the Talbot Archive.’ The project is generously supported by the John Fell Research Fund.
