My interest in early Scottish photography arose from being a photographer and beginning to find out more about the history of photography, especially in Scotland. The more I found out the more fascinated and absorbed I became because of an increasing awareness of Scotland's unparalleled place in early photography with innovative practitioners, masterful technicians and superb image makers. I now spend more of my time researching, writing and lecturing on the history of Scottish photography than making photographs.

Since 2001 I have tutored a popular course at the University of Edinburgh on the photography of Victorian Scotland. I have found this rewarding and encouraging as well as stimulating further research. This book is based on the course and has been written because there is no single publication that covers the subject. There are many excellent books that cover aspects of photography in Victorian Scotland but none that give a complete overview. My approach has been to try and make the content accessible and provide a comprehensive introduction to what is a vast subject. But the content is about more than photography because photography cannot be separated from the society of its time. It is the story behind the photography that also enthrals and illuminates. This story provides a multi-faceted insight into Victorian Scotland covering art and science, literature and tourism, religion and industrialisation, colonialism and social conditions, and more, with the direct and tangible contact that photography provides.