In the series "Chemistry of Light", British photographer Tessa Traeger explores the history of photography as a craft and as an instrument of recording, through the collection of 19th-century glass plate negatives left by her uncles Thomas and Godefry Batting. Traeger was particularly drawn to those where the silver gelatin emulsion was decaying, and, photographing these with mirrors or back-lighting, created works that are at once ghostly and charming.
With her series, Traeger captures the atmosphere of the time in which the photographs were initially taken, while evoking a sense of things past, and lost. "Chemistry of Light no. 41 - Bank Holiday Crowd" relates to early photographic scenes of seaside leisure, such as those produced by Francis Frith & Co. in the late 19th and early 20th century.