Maxwell’s Pictorial and Photographic Background

Abstract

This chapter places Maxwell’s acquaintance with photography in the early history of his habits and practices of visual representation, and his interest in visual perception. The chapter takes notice of Maxwell’s participation in his rich immediate visual environment, focusing on his family and Edinburgh local institutions as a source of opportunities and exemplars of visual experience and activities. His family’s reputation was inseparable from a rich tradition of art collecting and graphic activities, artistic and applied—from architecture to geology and naval tactics. His father and maternal uncle made contributions to printing technology and photography was a subject of discussion in several local institutions in which they were members.