Begin with this question: if you were to imagine yourself as a photographer in the nineteenth century, what kind of a photographer would you be, and how would you contrive to earn a living from the medium? Would you open a portrait studio, or join a geological expedition? Would you use your skill with the camera to produce serious scientific documents or to dupe the public with faked pictures of ghosts, fairies, or spirits? Would you take images of faraway wars in hopes of arousing commercial interest back home? Or, would you decide to undertake the most difficult task of all: to convince a skeptical public that this medium could produce works of art that might rival those made by painters or sculptors. However you chose to employ your camera, how would you earn a living from the pictures you produced? How would you create a market for your work or cater to an existing one?
