Photography as art The photography of Adam-Salomon played a pivotal role in the mainstream acceptance of photography as an art form. For example, in 1858 the poet
Alphonse de Lamartine described photography as "this chance invention which will never be art, but only a plagiarism of nature through a lens." A short time later, after seeing the photographs by Adam-Solomon, Lamartine changed his opinion.
Critical praise Coverage of Salomon's work in the French press outnumbered that of
Félix Nadar by a ratio of ten to one. After the
Paris Exposition of 1867, the reviewer for
The Times (UK) described Salomon's pictures "matchless", "beyond praise," "the finest photographic portraits in the world." In the 1868 edition of the
British Journal of Photography Almanac, editor
J. Traill Taylor wrote: The important discovery of the past year has been that M. Adams-Salomon, a Parisian photographer, has produced portraits of so high class as to show us the true capabilities of photography, and how much we have yet to overcome ere similar perfection can be claimed for the works of our average artists. It is far from being pleasant to know that we are so far behind the Parisians; but, believing such to be the case, the knowledge of the fact will, without doubt, rouse English artists to a sense of their shortcomings and the particular direction in which progress must be made. ==Selected works==