Farnham Maxwell Lyte
1828 - 1906
Farnham Maxwell Lyte British, 1828-1906
Although his birthplace and deathplace was London, Farnham Maxwell Lyte spent most of his life in France. He moved first to Luz and later to the southwestern town of Pau, where he encountered the group of photographers, including John Stewart and Jean-Jacques Heilmann, who worked in that area. All his known views are of the Pyrenees.
Lyte was responsible for several technical innovations, including a technique for printing skies, improved methods of working with collodion and waxed paper, and a process he called metagelatin, which was adopted by several of his peers. He helped to found the Société française de photographie and was a member of the Photographic Society of Great Britain. Lyte exhibited frequently in the 1850s-60s, receiving several international medals and awards for his work. T.W.F.
Text © The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2022