Why an Atheist Thinks the Shroud of Turin is the Real Deal

Mathew Brady

During the American Civil War, using a process very much like one proposed by Herschel, Mathew Brady became the most famous photographer of the 19^th century. He amassed a collection of photographic glass plates that numbered 10,000. Often unrealized is the fact that most of Brady’s photographs were not taken by Brady. He employed many photographers and purchased negatives from others. But when displayed or printed they all contained the obligatory caption, “Photograph by Brady.” It was a slight-of-hand. He provided the pictures. He was misunderstood.

It should not be thought that the invention of photography that brought it to its current state of development in 1898 rested mainly on the shoulders of Niépce, Daguerre, Talbot and Herschel. They stood on the shoulders of others who learned many things about chemistry. Wilhelm Homberg, is an example. In 1694 he explained how some chemicals darkened when exposed to light. 

By 1898 photography was on the boundary between the old and the new. The old was large cameras with a front that held a lens, a back that held glass plates to be exposed, a bellows in between. The new was celluloid film developed in the 1880s and hand held cameras in the 1890s. In 1898, Kodak introduced a folding pocket camera.