Arthur A. Taylor

d. 1873

Arthur A. Taylor French, b. Britain, d. 1873 An engineer by profession, Arthur A. Taylor was a major photographic innovator and supporter in the south of France. Although born in Britain, Taylor was the son of the leading industrialist in Marseilles during the second half of the 19th century, and this was the city where he would spend his entire career. Taylor was a founding member and active supporter of the Société marseillaise de photographie. Active from 1850-73, he took photographs in city parks and the surrounding countryside, as well as in Ariège and Seine-et-Oise. His invention of a portable camera and an exposure meter were undoubtedly helpful for these landscape excursions. Taylor worked with the publishing establishment G. Arosa et Cie. in Saint-Cloud to produce ink-based prints made from photographs according to Arosa's unique process. This type of print is likely made from a shellac base, for Taylor wrote several articles for British and American photographic journals on a shellac printing process in 1866-67 and introduced the process to the Société française de photographie in 1869. K.L.C.