This issue contains three key papers that were originally presented at an International conference, organized by the National Media Museum (NMeM) and the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), held at NMeM in Bradford in October 2010. This conference (Niépce in England) was concerned with presenting results from scientific, historical and conservation research relating to the pioneering photographs that Joseph Nicéphore Niépce left in England following a visit in 1827. It focused on three plates by Niépce, held in The Royal Photographic Society’s Collection by NMeM, together with other related material. The conference resulted from the culmination of a collaborative research project between the NMeM and the GCI that revealed new evidence of the significance of Niépce’s contribution to the development of photography and the revelation of a previously undiscovered method of image making dating from the 1820s.
In addition to the three science based papers published here, those contributions to the conference on related historical and conservation issues are published in a special edition of the Photohistorian, Journal of the Historical Group of The Royal Photographic Society (No 165, Winter 2012/13).
Professor Ralph Jacobson, ASIS, Hon FRPS