THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

As with the education project, staging the three-day International Conference would have been impossible without the sponsorship by Lloyds TSB Scotland. The conference, held in conjunction with the Royal Society of Edinburgh in their prestigious premises in George Street, attracted 90 speakers and delegates from throughout the UK, as well as from several overseas countries including Canada, the USA, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria.

Participants included world authorities on the history of photography, curators of major collections, academics and other professionals and also students and amateurs with an interest in the field. Topics covered included the historical context of the calotypes, recent research on the technical achievements, and international perspectives on Hill and Adamson.

The success of the event was evident at the time from the high quality of the contributions (including much new information and insight), the enthusiasm of participants and the generally relaxed atmosphere created. More impressive (and very gratifying) was the subsequent independent assessment of several senior delegates that this was ‘the best photography conference they had ever attended’.

Transcripts of most of the conference papers are to be found in SSHoP's Studies in Photography 2002–2003.