William Henry Fox Talbot

Photographs copyright of the Estate of William Henry Fox Talbot, courtesy Phaidon Press

This retrospective book is edited by Geoffrey Batchen about William Henry Fox Talbot (b. 1800, d. 1877). It is very nicely written and printed book which does a wonderful job of keeping William Henry Fox Talbot’s extensive early photographic work in perspective.

The book provides Talbot’s early technical photographic achievements such the contact negative print known as the (salt-paper) Calotype and his insight that if you used the negative print to contact print another photograph the results would be a positive. Along the way Talbot figured out the basic formula to “fix” an image from a suggestion from John Herschel to ensure that the image did not fade away. In 1852 Talbot worked out the photogravure printing process making it possible to have high quality images in books. He may be the first person to use flash photography in 1851.

Talbot also made some nice photographic images including both urban and natural landscapes, botany details (salt-paper Calotypes), family photographs and documentary of upper class life on the estate. I find that the book includes a number of wonderful images such as the natural landscape photograph of the Oak Tree in Winter created between 1842-43 that is tipped into the book cover and included within the book, above.

I was equally captivated by plate 31, High Street, Oxford, 1843 the third image below. This photograph has similar qualities to the photographic work of Eugene Atget.  Due to the long exposure the people of the street almost disappear leaving only slight traces of their presence with the exception of the horse and carriage far up the street. The foreground is slightly out of focus providing depth to the image while the domed building far down the street is starting to fade into the sky. The image has a nice flow to it and the light reflecting off the near windows on the left provides a nice balance.

Talbot had used contact prints of plants while investigating his photographic discover, first photograph below.  Later he returned in 1853 to further explore the possibilities of his salt-paper Calotype by contact printing more of his botany specimens such as Seeds, second photography below. An interesting process still being utilized by artist today.

This book is a nice reference for those who are interested in the history and development of the photographic and printing processes. It is well thought out and provides interesting information about the man who started the art of photography as we know it today. I found that although I was familiar with Talbot’s technical achievements that I was not as aware of his photographic body of work.

The 8 3/4″ x 10 7/8″ hardcover book with a tipped-in image on the front cover was printed in China in 2008. There are 55 plates and each plate has a facing caption, proximal dating and a brief background article about the accompanying photograph. The book is paginated in the introductory text while the remaining pages are not with 124 pages per my count, plus end-papers. There is also a Biography for Talbot at the end of the book.

Best regards, Douglas Stockdale