内容摘要：A new exhibition celebrating "the misfits and the oddballs who didn't really fit in anywhere" has opened in Liverpool.

A new exhibition celebrating "the misfits and the oddballs who didn't really fit in anywhere" has opened in Liverpool.

He is being remembered by the town's photographic society, with his story also highlighted in a book by a local history group."By 1857 he was winning medals and awards for his art photography and that carried on right the way through to the 1890s," explained Dr Pritchard, a former chief executive of the Royal Photographic Society.

Robinson used "combination printing", he said, creating a single image from multiple negatives.Using this technique allowed independent control of different parts of the scenes in the finished images."It's something we do today in Photoshop relatively easily but in the late 1850s and mid-19th Century it was a pretty groundbreaking technique," said Dr Pritchard.

"He became an absolute master of it and this was how he was able to create absolutely groundbreaking and stunning pictures."In one of the earliest examples of his "pictorial" photography, Fading Away, Robinson combined five separate negatives to produce a scene showing a dying girl surrounded by her family.

The image became incredibly popular despite Robinson's technique and subject matter, which was considered too morbid by some.

"As ever with that sort of genre photography of the time, there's a deeper story around it and you know all sorts of issues around how the Victorians pictured death," Dr Pritchard said.But what goes up can also come down. While gold has a reputation as a stable asset, it is not immune to price fluctuations. In fact, in the past, major surges in the price have been followed by significant falls.

So what is the risk this could happen again, leaving many of today's eager investors nursing big losses?Helped by its relative rarity, gold has been seen as an intrinsic store of value for centuries. The global supply is limited. Only around 216,265 tonnes have ever been mined, according to the World Gold Council, (the total is currently increasing by about 3,500 tonnes per year). This means that it is widely perceived as a "safe haven" asset that will retain its value.

As an investment, however, it has both advantages and disadvantages.Unlike shares, it will never pay a dividend. Unlike bonds, it will not provide a steady, predictable income, and its industrial applications are relatively limited.