BLANCHARD, Valentine

b. 1831; d. 4 Nov. 1901

Blanchard made numerous photographs of Paris and London. He used the slowness of the wet collodion process to good advantage, being the first to recognise that a blur, far from spoiling a picture, can add to the sense of movement. Some of his pictures were taken from the roof of a cab, and because the subjects were some distant away, one gains a general impression of the bustle of life, with little blur.

A genial and enthusiastic teacher, he joined the Secession and joined the Linked Ring, exhibiting at the Salon until the last few years of his life.