caption death_date death_place years_active birth_place nationality birth_date image article_title name occupation
self-portrait with his wife and mother , 1865 2 february 1910 saint-maurice , france 1857-1870 nogent-le-rotrou , eure-et-loir , france french 18 march 1834 camille photographed by camille silvy.jpg silvy with his wife and his mother 1865 camille silvy
 camille-léon-louis silvy photographer
camille silvy

camille-léon-louis silvy -lrb- born nogent-le-rotrou , france , 1834 ; died saint-maurice , france , 1910 -rrb- was a french photographer , primarily active in london .
he learned photography from his friend , count olympe aguado , in 1857 , and became a member of the société française de photographie in 1858 .
he then moved to london and opened a portrait studio at 38 porchester terrace , bayswater , becoming a member of the photographic society in 1859 .
sitters in silvy 's portraits include princess mary adelaide of cambridge , queen emma of hawaii , lady amberley , harriet martineau , adelina patti and frederick robson .
he also photographed many members of the british royal family .
the national portrait gallery , london , holds his studio 's daybooks , which include details of some 17,000 sittings , with about 12,000 of these showing an image from the sitting .
he closed his studio and returned to france in 1868 .
he himself believed that his nervous system had been damaged by exposure to potassium cyanide in the darkroom but it more likely that he suffered from manic depression .
the last thirty years of his life were spent in a succession of hospitals , sanatoria and convalescent homes .
