Thomas Sims
(active 1860s), PhotographerArtist of 2 portraits
Thomas Sims was an early professional photographer working with the daguerreotype process. In 1847 he began experimenting with W.H. Fox Talbot’s calotype process. Following his marriage to Frances ‘Fanny’ Wallace (sister of the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace) in 1849, the couple set up a daguerreotype business in Weston-Super-Mare. Sims exhibited 22 collodion photographs at the first British photographic exhibition organised by the Society of Arts in London in 1852. That same year he moved to London and opened two photographic studios. Shortly afterwards, Sims became involved in a legal dispute. Refusing to pay W.H. Fox Talbot for a license, an injunction was served forcing him to close his studios. After the landmark 1854 Talbot v. Laroche case against Talbot, Sims re-opened his studio. His dispute with Talbot was settled out of court in Sims’ favour in February 1855 and he remained in business until 1868. He then moved to Tunbridge Wells where he continued working as a professional photographer until his death in 1910.
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