Within the accepted historiography of photography, the importance of George Eastman and the Eastman Kodak Company (EKC) has become unassailable. They have been placed as the key, and often sole, agent in “revolutionizing” the amateur photography market in the late nineteenth century. While the photographic landscape and market of 1885-1914 was indeed radically altered, the historiographical dominance of what can be identified as the “Kodak story” has obscured the means through which EKC’s successful re-structuring of the existing manufacturing and distribution networks of photographic materials occurred. I argue that the changes effected by Eastman and the EKC began not with imaging desires, but with their acknowledgment, and profound understanding of the existing and competing interests within the photographic industry. This thesis focuses on the EKC’s re-structuring of the extant and evolving communities involved in the manufacturing and distribution of photographic materials in Canada between 1885-1910. Focusing particularly on the period immediately surrounding the establishment of the Canadian Kodak Co. Limited in 1899, I demonstrate the re-structuring processes at work, including: market and financial diversification; governmental lobbying; purchase and mergers; and other business and marketing-based strategies. I frame my theoretical positions and analysis of network re-structuring through the experiences of Ottawa professional photographer and photographic business owner William James Topley (active 1868-1907), and CKCoLtd manager John Garrison Palmer (active 1886-1921). Topley and Garrison’s professional experiences and interactions with expanded communities of photographic consumers and industry participants provide an opportunity for specific and detailed findings which challenge understandings of the evolution of the practice of photography during this transitional period. In doing so, I provide evidence of the primary role network re-structuring played in the EKC’s ability to shape the wider international photographic industry to their advantage in the early twentieth century.

Cette étude est une analyse de l’évolution de la notion de photographie pure, dans les discours en Grande-Bretagne, entre 1860 et 1917. Définie comme une image non retouchée ni manipulée, la photographie pure est envisagée en miroir de la retouche et des interventions sur les négatifs et positifs. Une exploration des journaux britanniques a mis en lumière cette préoccupation constante pour la définition et la légitimité des moyens de la photographie. Premièrement, la question des combination printings, de la notion de vérité comme essence de la photographie ainsi que l’aspect des images photographiques sont source de débats. Les discours d’acceptation et de rejet des pratiques de ciels rapportés, de coloriage et de la retouche apportent un éclairage sur la genèse de la retouche. Ces points, corrélés à la présence de la photographie pure dans les expositions, soulignent l’émergence d’une volonté puriste dès les années 1860. Enfin, les discours sur la photographie pure de Peter Henry Emerson et de Frederick H. Evans sont mis en parallèle et contextualisés au sein du pictorialisme, pour mieux en dessiner la définition. Ainsi se relient, dans ces débats sur la pureté, les limites de l’expérimentation et les aspects de la photographie, les figures d'Alfred H. Wall, Oscar Gustav Rejlander, Julia Margaret Cameron, Robert Demachy, Alvin Langdon Coburn et Alfred Stieglitz. Leurs discours et leurs recherches éclairent un idéal à atteindre, difficilement applicable, un mythe plus qu’une réalité. / This study is an analysis of the evolution of the notion of pure photography, in discourses happening in Great Britain between 1860 and 1917. Defined as a photograph that is neither retouched nor manipulated, pure photography is envisaged in regard to retouching and negative and positive interventions. An exploration of British periodicals has brought to light the constant preoccupation for the definition and legitimacy of the photographic tools. First, the question of combination printings, the notion of truth as the essence of photography and the aspect of photographic images are a source of debate. The discourses of acceptance and rejection of practices such as printing-in clouds, colouring and retouching shine light on the genesis of retouching. These aspects, paralleled with the presence of pure photography in exhibitions, highlight the emergence of a purist aspiration as early as 1860. Finally, the discourses of Peter Henry Emerson and Frederick H. Evans on pure photography are confronted and contextualized within pictorialism, to further its definition. Thus, through these debates on purity, the limits of experimentation and the aspects of photography, the figures of Alfred H. Wall, Oscar Gustav Rejlander, Julia Margaret Cameron, Robert Demachy, Alvin Langdon Coburn and Alfred Stieglitz are connecting. Their discourses and research put forth an ideal, out of reach, impractical, a myth more than a reality.