Skip to main content

William Henry Fox Talbot


Portrait of William Henry Fox Talbot, Ivan Szabo
salt print from a glass negative, mid 1850s. 13.3 x 10.7 cm.
source: http://foxtalbot.dmu.ac.uk/resources/portrait2.html

"William Henry Fox Talbot (February 11, 1800 – September 17, 1877) was the inventor of the negative/positive photographic process, the precursor to most photographic processes of the 19th and 20th centuries".
William Fox Talbot -Wikipedia article

A different evaluation of the role of Talbot in the development of photography is proposed by R. Derek Wood: "Talbot’s part in the birth of photography in 1839 has generally been overrated in England". He writes:

"Talbot laid considerable emphasis upon sensitization with silver iodide/gallic acid mixture before exposure. As late as 1844 he still seemed to place importance on this pre–exposure wash with gallic acid “to bring out the picture”. [31] The words “latent” and “develop” certainly appear in his first account of the calotype process, but how clearly did he conceive of the development of the latent image? The calotype process presented practical difficulties so that it was still not so widely used as the daguerreotype in the 1840s. [32] If the calotype was really so basic a beginning to modern photography can the early practical failure of the technique be solely due to the fact that the negative base was paper? Did other photographers fail to read from the published technique an understanding of the development of the latent image?

John Herschel, in contrast to Talbot, always sought to understand the principles involved in the photographic process, and his published articles were therefore always stimulating to other researchers. In the first two years of photographic research he did not, however, observe what has proved to be so remarkable a characteristic of silver salts and the reason why they are so important for the advance of photography; important not simply because they change when exposed to light (for many substances do this) but because development by chemical reduction can be obtained on silver halide crystals after they have received only an extremely low exposure. But it is not surprising that photography should have first to pass through a primitive stage using an exposure print–out system before a mature understanding could be reached of latent image formation and a mode of working using chemical development could be established. It is commonly held that the calotype is of absolute significance and Talbot’s role supreme in the discovery of the latent image and development. Whether or not such assumptions are entirely correct, it is within this context that the present article has attempted to clarify a confused aspect of the pre–history of development in the hope that future studies on the subject can be more straight forwardly and relevantly pursued."

in Latent Developments from Gallic Acid, 1839
by R. Derek Wood
Journal of Photographic Science, 28: 1 (January/February 1980), pp. 36–41
available here



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Group f/64 Manifesto (1932)

Ansel Adams by Dorothea Lange Group f/64 Manifesto The name of this Group is derived from a diaphragm number of the photographic lens. It signifies to a large extent the qualities of clearness and definition of the photographic image which is an important element in the work of members of this Group. The chief object of the Group is to present in frequent shows what it considers the best contemporary photography of the West; in addition to the showing of the work of its members, it will include prints from other photographers who evidence tendencies in their work similar to that of the Group. Group f/64 is not pretending to cover the entire of photography or to indicate through its selection of members any deprecating opinion of the photographers who are not included in its shows. There are great number of serious workers in photography whose style and technique does not relate to the metier of the Group. Group f/64 limits its members and invitational names to those worke
1 comment
Read more

Post-photography

"The job of the photographer in the 21st century has become increasingly challenging as the practice is an overwhelmingly populist business. Anyone who has access to a camera has the power to become an artist, leaving a plethora of cached evidence on the internet for public consumption. This “found” internet content serves as a vast laboratory for major experimentation, underpinning the concept of post-photography, with endless possibilities for artists to recreate original works using avant-garde techniques drawn from both the digital and analogue eras." Fiona Martin (short presentation of the book Post-Photography: The Artist with a Camera by Robert Shore) http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/post-photography / Perhaps there is less novelty here, regarding the context of photography transformed by the new image technologies developed in the late 20th century, in the particular sense that the early impact of photography itself transformed the regimes of vision and impact
1 comment
Read more

Calotype process

"The calotype negative process was sometimes called the Talbotype , after its inventor. It was not Talbot's first photographic process (introduced in 1839), but it is the one for which he became most known. Henry Talbot devised the calotype in the autumn of 1840, perfected it by the time of its public introduction in mid-1841, and made it the subject of a patent (the patent did not extend to Scotland). The base of a calotype negative, rather than the glass or film to which we have become accustomed, was high quality writing paper. The sheet of paper was carefully selected to have a smooth and uniform texture and, wherever possible, to avoid the watermark. The first stage, conducted in candlelight, was to prepare what Talbot called his iodized paper. The paper was washed over with a solution of silver nitrate and dried by gentle heat. When nearly dr
Post a Comment
Read more