author
Thomas Cradock Hepworth
d. 1905
A lively Victorian writer on photography and the magic lantern, he helped make new visual technologies easier for ordinary readers to understand. His books mix practical advice with clear enthusiasm for image-making at a time when photography was rapidly growing.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Thomas Cradock Hepworth was a British photography enthusiast and author whose work focused on practical guides for photographers and lantern users. He wrote books including The Book of the Lantern, The Magic Lantern and Its Management, Photography for Amateurs, and The Camera and the Pen.
He was also active as a lecturer, serving at the Royal Polytechnic Institution in London and lecturing on photography at the Birkbeck Institution. In addition, he edited the periodical The Camera, which fits with the hands-on, instructional character of his writing.
Hepworth is also remembered as the father of filmmaker Cecil Hepworth. Taken together, his books and teaching place him among the popularizers who helped bring photography and lantern entertainment to a wider public in the late nineteenth century.