George Shadbolt was a British writer, editor, student of optics

Optics

Optics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light...

 and photographer with a strong interest in innovative techniques, who was active during the 1850s–60s. Reported to have made the first microphotograph

Micrograph

A micrograph or photomicrograph is a photograph or digital image taken through a microscope or similar device to show a magnified image of an item.Micrographs are widely used in all fields of microscopy.-Photomicrograph:...

, he was also an early advocate of photographic enlargement

Enlarger

An enlarger is a specialized transparency projector used to produce photographic prints from film or glass negatives using the gelatin silver process, or from transparencies.-Construction:...

, as well as compound and combination printing

Combination printing

Combination printing is the technique of using two or more photographic images in conjunction with one another to create a single image.Combination printing was popular in the mid-19th century due to the limitations of the negative's light sensitivity and camera technology...

. Shadbolt's dislike of the glare of albumen printing paper

Albumen print

The albumen print, also called albumen silver print, was invented in 1850 by Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard, and was the first commercially exploitable method of producing a photographic print on a paper base from a negative...

 led him to forsake it for salted paper. His technical interests probably motivated his praise of Henry Peach Robinson

Henry Peach Robinson

Henry Peach Robinson was an English pictorialist photographer best known for his pioneering combination printing - joining multiple negatives to form a single image, the precursor to photomontage...

, whose combination prints were highly controversial. For seven years Shadbolt was editor of the publication that later became the British Journal of Photography

British Journal of Photography

The British Journal of Photography is a magazine about photography publishing in-depth articles, profiles of photographs, analyses, and techological reviews.-History:...

. One of his sons, Cecil V. S. Shadbolt, is remembered as a contributor to balloon

Balloon

A balloon is an inflatable flexible bag filled with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. Modern balloons can be made from materials such as rubber, latex, polychloroprene, or a nylon fabric, while some early balloons were made of dried animal bladders, such as the pig...

 photography.

After 1864, Shadbolt's success as a mahogany dealer forced him to retire from photography, although he maintained his professional affiliations. One of the founders of the Photographic Society of London (later the Royal Photographic Society

Royal Photographic Society

The Royal Photographic Society is the world's oldest national photographic society. It was founded in London, United Kingdom in 1853 as The Photographic Society of London with the objective of promoting the Art and Science of Photography...

), he also was active in the Amateur Photographic Association and the Photographic Exchange Club.

Source

• Wood, Derek. A History of Early British Photography