Making the Modern World Photography, itself a product of a
technical age, was seen as a medium ideally suited to record a
period of material expansion and massive industrialisation. The
nineteenth-century revolution in transport saw the creation of a
worldwide network of roads, railways, canals and shipping and
all were subject to intense scrutiny by the camera. An early and
accomplished example of the use of photography to record the
progress of construction projects is to be seen in Philip
Delamotte's record of the construction of the Crystal Palace at
Sydenham from 1853-55; but it was in France in particular that
photography was used most extensively by the civil engineer and
collections of prints were made recording the achievements of
the Public Works Department in harbour construction, public
architecture and communications. Indeed, for a number of
studios, such as that of Hippolyte Collard, this branch of work
became a speciality. Such photographs served not only as prosaic
progress records, but expres