I am a trained photographer, have worked as chief photographer of a research institute, taught photography for many years, and have had hundreds of photographs published and/or exhibited. My talk covers the history of photography from ca. 1800 to ca. 1900, an era which saw the merging of optical image-generating instruments with chemical methods of rendering the image permanent. This resulted in an explosion of photography for recording the natural and built environment, people, everyday life and technological processes.