Felice A. Beato was for a long time somewhat of an enigma. It was not wholly clear where he was born, how he acquired British citizenship nor when he died. In 2009 however, his death certificate was discovered, showing that he was in Venice in 1832 and died in Florence in 1909. But there are still many unknowns in his story.

My fascination with photography began when I was 14 after seeing an exhibition by Henri Cartier-Bresson in Amsterdam. I remember standing in front of his photographs, feeling as though I was peering into these fleeting moments that would have otherwise been lost to time.

He described himself in self-deprecating terms as a little "house mouse" in the world of photography. He was much more than that, but it does say something about how he went about his business.

For Witkin, his contact sheets are far more than a tool for selecting a final image. They represent a critical moment in his creative process, where the emotional and conceptual weight of the photograph begins to crystallize. They are visual roadmaps that capture not only his technical decisions but also the evolution of his provocative imagery.

The selection is based on instinct, rarity, ingenuity, subject, emotional impact, aura, aesthetic and/or documentary value. Sometimes it is precisely the aesthetics of the “imperfect” or the mysteriousness, the enigma, that is the real attraction.

The trip lasted three and a half months but because of sickness and bad weather Tripe had only 36 days to photograph the region. This was indicative of the problems of the 19th century photographer in the East: heat, dust, and flies in summer, damp humid conditions and sickness during the monsoon months, the rapid deterioration of photographic chemicals, and difficulties procuring and transporting the bulky equipment.

I’m particularly proud when a museum shows interest in Bazar Nadar’s offerings. Public collections open up photo history to a broader audience, which I, as a teacher, naturally welcome. Then, the photos and stories are seen by a wider audience. For instance, some lovely autochromes ended up at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

The Lens Media Lab at Yale University’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage has undertaken an extensive project to document and characterize its collection of over 7 500 dated and identified gelatin silver papers manufactured between 1890 and 2010.

The plan is to continue Robert Hershkowitz Ltd, as well as develop my own business within, which will include material in which my father hasn’t been prominent, such as vernacular photography, cased images and some modern and contemporary.

Every photographer is faced with an array of choices. Decisions need to be made. Where to point and shoot. What to include and what to leave out. How the photograph’s edges will work alongside the images they contain. Then, of course, there is the matter of the things that sneak into frame; and those that might get cropped, as if by a guillotine.

In the summer of 1861, Watkins first travelled to the remote and unexplored Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove of Big Trees, two hundred miles east of San Francisco, to photograph their fabled wonders.

The frame was made from wooden clothespins, otherwise often used to construct crosses of the same size. It’s an example of “Gartenarbeiten”, meaning Trench Works, which were made from everyday objects during the First World War.

I chose to be a full-time dealer so that I would be fully invested and not be tempted to rely on a safety net. It's not always easy, but it's exciting!

At this stage of his career Dennis was basically uncontrollable. He made enemies left, right and centre and cared not a jot about it. For instance, he found himself sitting next to George Cukor, director of The Philadelphia Story (1940) and A Star is Born (1954), at a Hollywood dinner. In horror, fellow guest Peter Bogdanovich heard him say to Cukor, “You’re old Hollywood and we are going to bury you!”

The first steps in any conservation treatment are to photograph it, record the damage, which may look very different when flattened, and then dry clean all the surfaces.

He left his mark on German post-war photography like no other. Otto Steinert spanned the arc from New Seeing to Subjective Photography, broke with the conventions of documentary photography, and fundamentally influenced the visual language with his tension-filled compositions.

Last year, the Getty Museum acquired the private collection of 209 Atget photographs assembled over the course of 25 years by Mary and Dan Solomon.

Grundy lived in Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham. Unlike William M England, who is renowned for his extensive trips in America, France, Ireland and Switzerland, Grundy’s travels were more modest - indeed London Stereoscopic labeled his collection Grundy’s English Views!

When the Boer War broke out in October 1899, Thiele was appointed as the official photographer for The Graphic – the first and only to be sent to South Africa in such a capacity.

‘I was twenty-three when I took the first of these pictures. Thinking back to those years, I recall how driven I already was to make images that captured the essence of all that engaged me. I had spent much time as a child and teenager in the South of France, based in Aix-en-Provence, where my grandmother lived. That region – including Marseille and the coastal resorts to the east of Marseille and their hinterland – became an important part of my life.’

After building a reputation as both a gifted technician and portrait photographer of some talent, William England eventually abandoned portraiture to join The London Stereoscopic Company, upon its founding in 1854. England soon became the company’s principal photographer and leading technical innovator.

The idea for this article started when my wonderful colleague Rebecca drew my attention to a group of twelve ninth plate ambrotypes that were for sale on eBay as “Buy it now” (not a very common thing, unfortunately) and were described by the seller as possibly representing members of the same family.

The Photographers’ Gallery, London, presents An Alternative History of Photography: Works from the Solander Collection, a bold new perspective on the history of photography. Curated by Phillip Prodger, co-founder of The Solander Collection, the exhibition includes over 130 works that invite the viewer to look again at well-known works and new discoveries by major artists, alongside forgotten greats, regional champions and unknown artists.

This is no ordinary sitter I am writing about this time but one with feathers and a beak: a pigeon. What makes this bird interesting is that it was no ordinary pigeon either but a champion homing one.