Camille-Léon-Louis Silvy

Camille-Léon-Louis Silvy carried his camera like a stage prop—he once posed a man mid-handshake so the print looked like he’d just closed a deal. This French photographer, born in the 1830s, loved tricky frames: mirrors, doorways, anything that turned a simple portrait into a mini-drama. He left Paris for London in the 1850s and never looked back, turning the foggy riverfront into his studio. His trickiest shot? “Guy Little Theatrical Photograph,” where a velvet curtain and a painted backdrop make the actor vanish into the role.