LT: The Development of the Camera
Throughout this lesson you’ve learnt about the various techniques used and inventors that contributed to the art form that is Photography. Choose only one, do some additional research and in your own words write a report on why you think the chosen technique contributed to what we are able to do today through photography.
- Explain your research and choice of technique.
- Include any images which you think are necessary to explain your thought process.
- This should be 500 – 1000 words.
The creator of negative-positive photography – William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877)
About Talbot
William Henry Fox Talbot was a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, and a Liberal member of Parliament in the House of Commons. His was interested in many things, for example mathematics, chemistry, philosophy and art history. Before he got name in the field of photography he had already published books and scholarly articles. He was a scientist and researcher. ”Fun fact”: what drove Talbot to experiment with capturing an image was the fact that he was frustrated that he wasn’t a good drawer.
Photograms
Talbot created negatives using the following steps:
- Paper was coated with sodium chloride and then left to dry.
- The dried paper was recoated with silver nitrate which creates a light sensitive layer.
- The paper was rinsed and left to dry.
- The subject that is meant be captured was placed against glass and exposed to sunlight.
- The image was fixed with potassium iodide.
The images that Talbot created using this method are called photograms: images that are created without a camera.
From photogenic drawings to calotype
Talbot’s journey in developing negatives to positives began with contact printing. He placed another coated paper under the original and then exposed it to light. In this method the darker areas blocked the light coming through to the bottom sheet and the original light areas made the bottom sheet darker. The result was a reversal in image. Talbot himself named this the photogenic drawing (Image 1, gallery).
Still, he didn’t get the details that he wanted to appear in the image. He continued to improve the method. After accidentally discovering how positives can be created, he came up with the following procedures:
- Take an exposed, iodized paper, to the darkroom and use a brush to apply gallic acid to it.
- During the brushing the negative appears.
- The paper is contact printed to unexposed, salted paper, and a positive will form.
Talbot decided to call this process of developing images calotype (Image 2) and applied patent for it in 1841. Later he changed the name to talbotype, though. Although the invention of calotype was an achievement the downside was that calotypes faded over time.
”The Pencil of Nature”
Talbot was the first person who commercially published a book that was illustrated with photographs. The book is called The Pencil of Nature (Image 3) and it was published in 1844. It has 24 images that represent everyday life and text that discusses the future and goals of photography as an art form. The book can be seen as a forerunner of so called “beautiful coffee table books” that people read today. There are 15 copies left of Talbot’s book and two of them are on display in the museum at Lacock Abby, England, where Talbot lived all his life.
Although Talbot was a contemporary of Louise Jacques Mandé Daguerre, the creator of daguerreotype, he conducted his own independent research about printing images. In fact, he didn’t know about Daguerre’s research about photography until the French Government made it public in 1839.
An interesting detail concerning Talbot’s research is that his wife, Constance, participated in the research by also developing images. This makes her the world’s first known woman photographer.
Summary
Talbot invented the two-part printing process that is still used today. Talbot found out that with the negatives he could repeat the printing process, and, with this calotype process it is possible to make multiple positives, unlike with the daguerreotypes.
Because Talbot decided to apply for the patent for his calotype process (the result of his research he did over 20 years) he handed the competitive edge over to daguerreotype which practitioners could use for free.
Image 1. Adiantum Capillus-Veneris (Maidenhair Fern). Probably early 1839. Photogenic drawing, negative. Courtesy of Hans P. Kraus Jr., New York. 
Image 2. A Barouche Parked in the North Courtyard of Lacock Abbey, April 1844. Salted paper print from a calotype negative. Carnegie Museum of Art, Gift of William Talbott Hillman. 
Image 3. Plate XIV from The Pencil of Nature, The Ladder. William Henry Fox Talbot © Science Museum Group collection.
SOURCES
Art of the Photogravure. William Henry Fox Talbot. https://photogravure.com/key-figure/william-henry-fox-talbot/
International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum. Vi Whitmire. William Henry Fox Talbot. https://iphf.org/inductees/william-henry-fox-talbot/
Noroff. Moodle. Module 1 – History of Photography and the DSLR Camera.
Photofocus. 2017. Lisa Robinson. William Henry Fox Talbot: An Overview. https://photofocus.com/inspiration/history/william-henry-fox-talbot-an-overview/
IMAGES
Carnegie Museum of Art. A Barouche Parked in the North Courtyard of Lacock Abbey. https://cmoa.org/exhibition/talbot/#image-4
Memento by diptyque paris. 2016. Sylvie Aubenas. Adiantum Capillus-Veneris (Maidenhair Fern). http://www.diptyqueparis-memento.com/en/henry-fox-talbot-2/
Science + Media Museum. 2014. Colin Harding. P is for… ”The Pencil of Nature: A Wonderful Illustration of Necromancy. https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/a-z-of-photography-william-henry-fox-talbots-the-pencil-of-nature/
My Graphic Journal 