Sun pictures: Printing Talbot's calotype negatives

Abstract

The inspiration for a major exhibition to commemorate the centenary of W. H. F. Talbot's death in 1877 arose from a number of projects in which the Kodak Museum had been involved. In September 1973, for the first programme in the BBC Television series ‘Pioneers of Photography’, the author visited Lacock Abbey to demonstrate Talbot's early photogenic drawing process. The sensitizing process used was based upon Talbot's own formulae, modified for use in a teaching programme prepared for the Kodak Education Service some years before¹. Thin paper, of the type used for making carbon copies of typewriting, of weight 45 grammes per square metre, was soaked in a solution of 50 grammes of sodium chloride in one litre of water until thoroughly wetted. The salted paper was dried, and sensitized when required by soaking in a solution of 100 grammes of silver nitrate in one litre of distilled water, to which 10 millilitres of glacial acetic acid had been added. About one minute was sufficient to convert the salt in the paper to silver chloride, and to give the necessary excess of silver nitrate to make a sensitive printing-out paper. When dried, the paper could be used to make prints by exposure to strong light under a leaf in a printing frame, yielding excellent prints in a few minutes in bright sunshine. Talbot stabilized his early pictures by treating them with a strong salt solution; to give greater permanence to the modern prints, they were fixed in conventional photographic fixing solutions. In the early summer of 1975, the same process was used to produce photogenic drawings both by contact and through the camera for display in the Fox Talbot Museum at Lacock, then under construction. During this work, some of Talbot's original calotype negatives were printed experimentally, while on loan from the Royal Photographic Society. Though not perfect, these modern calotype prints were sufficiently successful to suggest the possibility of an exhibition, to be prepared in honour of Talbot's centenary. It was intended that the display include a number of ‘salted paper’ prints from original negatives. It was felt that these would convey the special character of the calotype print far more effectively than would be possible with modern photographic materials.     

Talbot and Amici

Abstract

In an effort to make his invention of negative-positive paper photography known in Europe, William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877) sent photogenic drawings to several Italian scientists in 1839 and 1840. Among the recipients of specimens of Talbot's new art were Antonio Bertoloni (1775–1869), Professor of botany at the University of Bologna; Michele Tenore (1780–1861), Director of the Botanic Garden in Naples; and the renowned optician, microscopic biologist, and astronomer Giovanni Battista Amici (1786–1868) (figure 1), who was Director of the astronomical observatory of the Royal Museum of Physics and Natural History in Florence.¹     

The Photo Archives of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Abstract

The primary function of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is educational. Its secondary role, no less important, is to preserve and record the history of the Holocaust for future generations. In this regard, the collection and preservation of photographs, textual records and artefacts that enable us to study this tragic period are of paramount importance. ‘After Daguerre, every man's family acquired a visual past: a tangible link with the history of the species’, wrote John Szarkowski in Looking at Photographs.¹ Now, after many years of dogged collecting, the ‘family’ of Holocaust survivors has a heavily documented visual past lodged at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Established in 1989, the photo archive of the Museum now counts 60 000 photographs in its roster. The photographs document Jewish life throughout the world before the Second World War, as well as the history of the persecution and extermination of Europe's Jews as well as non-Jewish victims. It is one of the largest such repositories in the world and one which historians, journalists and researchers ask to use every day.     

Danny Lyon's family album

Abstract

The modest appearance of I Like to Eat Right on the Dirt: A Child's Journey Back in Space and Time (1989), by Danny Lyon belies its true portent.¹ As an experimental photo story, developed from purely photographic models, this book opens up whole new horizons.     

Claudet,Fenton and the photographic society

Abstract

Among Fox Talbot's papers, held at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television (NMPFT) in Bradford, is a handwritten document entitled simply: ‘Photographic Society’. It bears no signature and is not dated.¹     

Calvert Richard Jones the earlier wark

Abstract

For almost a century after his death in 1877, Calvert Jones's work was neglected and his photographs commonly attributed to Henry Fox Talbot. Only in the past few years has it become evident that Jones was responsible for some of the most visually exciting images of early photography and that his pictures represent a coherent and notably well-directed body of work. It is now clear that Jones possessed a remarkable and original artistic vision; he was also one of the most irresistible personalities of photography's beginning.     

The Fox Talbot museum

Abstract

William Henry Fox Talbot was Lord of the Manor of Lacock from 1827 until his death in 1877. During this long period he invented, in 1835, the negative/positive process of photography, and engaged in many other pioneering researches, including those on photo-engraving. In 1944, the Talbot estate, including the Abbey, Lacock Village and two thousand acres of farm lands, was handed over to the National Trust, a land-owning charity, independent of the Government. The Trust is now responsible for the preservation of half a million acres of the finest gardens. It has always been a policy of the Trust to use its properties for the benefit of the public, and the large sixteenth century barn situated at the entrance of the Abbey gates was thought to be the ideal place to house a museum honouring William Henry Fox Talbot.     

Talbot's photographic art

Abstract

Among the papers belonging to James David Forbes preserved in the University Library at St Andrews is a short letter that Sir John Herschel sent to Forbes on 6 June 1839. Writing while he was waiting to go in to a committee meeting at the Royal Society, Herschel's intention was to thank Forbes for having sent hirn copies of two of his scientific papers, but the most interesting part of the note is the hurriedly scribbled postcript with which it ends: ‘I have seen Daguerre's drawings (Photographs) in Paris which are all but miraculous!!!’. It is no exaggeration to say that Larry Schaaf's new book, The Photographic Art of William Henry Fox Talbot, generates a similar reaction.     

Strand's world

Abstract

Paul Strand's photographs are always a pleasure to look at, just as Calvin Tompkins' writing is always a pleasure to read. Aperture, the sine qua non of American photographic book publishing, has recently brought out yet another volume of Strand's photographs, this time pairing them with a critical essay by Calvin Tompkins and adding what is perhaps the most interesting element of all, a section entitled, ‘excerpts from correspondence, interviews and other documents’. The book is a stunning contribution to photographic literature. The pictures themselves are beautifully and faithfully reproduced. Tompkins' interpretive historical essay, altered very little from its first appearance in The New Yorker (16th September 1974), is graceful and informative. The book is executed with the high degree of taste associated with Aperture, thoroughly befitting the intelligence of Strand's photographs. By publishing more pages on Strand than on any other photographer, Aperture had made its own contribution to the Strand legend. This includes the recent, charming article by Catherine Duncan (‘The Garden: Vines and Leaves’, in Aperture, No. 78) and, of course, the monumental two-volume catalogue (also issued in a single volume version) which served as an accompaniment to the Strand retrospective exhibition organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1971.     

Herschel,Talbot and Photography: Spring 1831 and Spring 1839

Abstract

The rich, productive, and enthusiastic interaction between Henry Talbot and John Herschel is a fascinating microcosm of early photographic research. An isolated experiment, shared by them in 1831, is a typical example of the tantalizing near-misses that pervade the chronicles of the pre-history of photography. Their correspondence in early 1839, before Herschel saw Daguerre's then superior productions, is a window for us today to learn from the initial thoughts of the excited pioneers. We face contemporary reports of discovery and hope, unedited and unrefined by the influence of time and later events.     

Talbot's Rouen window

Abstract

On 16 May 1843, William Henry Fox Talbot, stopping in Rouen en route to Paris to try to market his calotype process, set up his camera in front of the muslin-curtained window of his room in the Hôtel de l'Angleterre (figure 1).¹ Huddled deep in the darkened bedroom, he focused not on the masts of sailing vessels docked outside on the quai du Havre or the new suspension bridge that he was to record in other images, but on the plane of the window itself, with its mullions, balcony grating, curtain rods, and filigree of lace. Knowing full well that the faintly lit walls of his room would be grossly underexposed ifhe tried to capture anything of the bright outside world, Talbot persisted with this enigmatic composition, neither landscape nor still life, study of nature nor genre scene, at best a ‘picturesque imagining’ as he would later describe in The Pencil of Nature.     

Bibliography: Photo narrative today

Abstract

The following bibliography is not exhaustive. Its aims are twofold: first, to introduce some of the most important modern creative work published in France, Britain and the USA; and second, to present a substantial survey of recent theoretical writing and criticism about the photo narrative, with particular emphasis on photo fiction. The critical work available reveals that historical research in the field is extremely scarce. A comprehensive history of photo narrative has yet to be written. Such a work would embrace all forms of photo narrative, irrespective of their function or destined audience. Of necessity, it would trace the recurrent use of photographic sequences from the early work of Muybridge and Marcy to contemporary experiments. Modern photo narrative often exhibits characteristics found in earlier work, such as the sequentially organized American Photographs by Walker Evans and the picture stories that begin to appear in the 1930s. New tendencies are nevertheless apparent, notably the disruption of traditional forms, the juxtaposition of fact and fiction, and the use of autobiographical material.     

Sage of Lacock

Abstract

‘The good is oft interred with their bones.’ Much of what has been written of William Henry Fox Talbot has done him meagre justice: criticism for patenting his inventions, accusations that he patented the ideas of others, denigration of the importance of his discoveries. Though acknowledged as a scientist, his place as an artistic worker in the medium he invented has not been appreciated.     

ALAIR GOMES IN THE UNITED STATES

This article is mainly focused on the photographic work of Alair Gomes during the 1970s and 1980s in the United States. The analyses include photo essays published in the Performance,The Advocate and Advocate MEN magazines, as well as in Gay Sunshine journal and the Artists Almanac. The five photo essays feature a series of visual elements which characterize the work of Alair Gomes, most notably the sequential and multiple photographic images and print media as space of artistic production. This multiplicity of elements broadens the relationship established by his historiography between photography and homoeroticism. The proposition was to offer a new reading of Alair Gomes’ work, highlighting new aspects along the artistic path of his photographic work.     

Obituary

Abstract

This handsome book is a superb introduction to the history of photography in Japan as well as a catalogue of The History of Japanese Photography exhibition held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and the Cleveland Museum of Art (2003). The over-sized (12 x 10 inches) volume contains 207 beautifully reproduced photographic plates, seven chapters discussing the history of photography in Japan from 1848 until 2000, and a helpful series of appendices. The latter includes the ‘Exhibition Checklist’, a ‘Chronology’, ‘Artist Profiles’, listings of ‘Major Photography Clubs and Associations’ and ‘Major Photography Magazines’, a ‘Selected Bibliography’ and an ‘Index’. For those interested in a well written, informative and visually stimulating introduction to the subject, this is the book to consult.     

Gelatin Silver Halide Emulsion: A History

In 1850 Robert Bingham of England was the first to publish information about his invention — photographic plates containing a gelatin silver halide layer which produced negatives in a camera. The practicability of his procedure was confirmed in recent experiments.

The use of gelatin extends to the very beginning of the photographic negative-positive system which was invented by W. H. F. Talbot. Quantitative analyses have revealed that Talbot placed his coatings on paper bases which were heavily sized with gelatin.     

Gilbert Radoux: An early photographic publisher

Abstract

The printing industry has always been a leading-edge application of photography¹. It is no coincidence that the desire to improve on traditional graphic processes was the stimulus which fuelled the researches of both Niepce and Talbot. Since its invention, photography has been used as an information bearer in most domains of human activity. As Talbot recognized when he set up his Talbotype Printing Establishment in Russell Terrace, Reading, in late 1843 or early 1844, printing was a promising industrial sector for the exploitation of photography. He was also forced to realize, when he shut down the operation some three years later, that photographic publishing was perhaps an idea whose time had yet to come.² The necessary preconditions for ensuring commercial success - minimum viability in the form oflow unit costs, mass-produced prints of marketable quality and evidence of a real demand for the finished product - had still to be met.     

Nevil Story˜Maskelyne, 1823–1911

Abstract

Nevil Story-Maskelyne is not a man whose name readily comes to mind as a pioneer experimenter in photography, but he should not be ignored. As a young man of 22 in 1845, he revealed to Fox Talbot his devotion to photography and became a lifelong friend. During the Patent trial, Talbot v. Laroche—1855, he took a firm line of support, opposing the general opinions of the Council of the Photographic Society, a courageous attitude for one so young. In a letter to Talbot, he said at the time: ‘No man in my belief can take from you this that you first showed, that Iodide of Silver formed in the moist way [i.e., from solutions] was capable of being made acceptable of a latent effort under the influence of light, which in subsequent treatment with substances capable of a sort of reducing (dioxidying) [sic] action, was capable of developing into a visible effect. This I believe to be yours and on it, it seems to me your point rests securely’1 Letter LA54-60 (26th November 1854), Lacock Abbey Collection. . He went on to comment on those who had seen fit to claim the invention as their own, and said that they were men ‘most deeply indebted to you for their living at all’. Maskelyne was gifted, kind, generous, devoted to his family, and a highly intelligent scientist.     

Kunst and conscience

Abstract

This book owes its existence largely to the ‘discovery’ of a new cache of Zille photographs, now in the possession of one of the artist's descendants. Altogether, there are 418 negatives on glass, some glass positives, some contact prints, and about a hundred photographs of which negatives have not been traced. None of this material, had been treated with any particular care; its value had remained unrecognized, in harmony with Zille's own view of his photographic activities, as a means to a very practical end. Famous as a painter and cartoonist of the Berlin scene, he did not himself consider his photographs as Hochkunst, but there is no doubt whatever that modern sensibilities and judgements place them into that category. It is true enough that the present selection of 200 items, beautifully printed and presented one to a page, includes some trivial material, but an astonishing number of images invite comparison with the work of the more famous turn-of-the-century masters, and yield nothing at all to their superior reputations. Zille, who began photographing in 1890, might conceivably have know of Nègre, but there is no evidence that he had ever seen work by Atget, Coburn, Riis or Hine. Indeed, many of Zille's most important photographs predate some of their American parallels, and yet his images reflect the intrinsic qualities of all these artists, while at the same time exhibiting a freshness of approach which is peculiarly his own. This does not come through as a minor descant on a familiar theme; on the contrary, it is the dominant impression, important enough to secure Zille's place in any photographic Hall of Fame. The two examples available as illustrations for this review, though entirely competent, cannot by themselves confirm the impression of the originality and richness that are in store for the reader.     

How Stieglitz came to photograph cityscapes

Abstract

Beginning in 1927, at the age of 63, Alfred Stieglitz began photographing the views of Manhattan outside the windows at the Intimate Gallery, his third-floor exhibition space on East 59th Street, and at the thirtieth-floor apartment at the Shelton Hotel, at 49th Street and Lexington Avenue, where he lived with Georgia O'Keeffe. In concerted bursts over the next four years, and then intermittently until ill-health forced the end of his picture-making in 1937, Stieglitz produced about 90 cityscapes, most of them depicting the changing views from .the Shelton and from his seventeenthfloor gallery An American Place, at 53rd Street and Madison Avenue, where he moved operations just after the stockmarket crash of 1929.1 The key set of Stieglitz's photographs in the National Gallery, Washington, DC, deposited there by Georgia O'Keeffe in 1949, includes 80 New York cityscapes from 1927 and after. The collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art has, among its late cityscapes, a handful that are not present in Washington, being variants in either negative, cropping, or photographic paper. These have been donated in stages over the years by Dorothy Norman. Further examples of variations from the images in Washington are unknown at present. These hard-edged yet lush gelatine silver prints vividly document a building boom of the late 1920s and early Depression years which transformed the refined, residential ‘uptown’ that Stieglitz had known all his life into a skyscraper-ridden ‘midtown’, a centre for office rentals, luxury apartment hotels and the fme art trade (figure 1).