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William
Henry Fox Talbot.
11th February 1800 to 17th September 1877.
His signature is Henry Talbot, and though
he is said to have disliked being called Fox Talbot, that name has stuck.
Fox Talbot made a major contribution to the photographic process as we know it
today.
Talbot studied the classics and mathematics at Cambridge, was elected
a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1822, and a Fellow of the Royal Society
in 1832. He was also an MP, Biblical scholar and archaeologist, making a contribution to
the deciphering of cuneiform inscriptions brought to England from Nineveh.
Though some of his pictures show a measure of artistic
taste, it was his inability to produce pictures, which caused him to experiment with a
mechanical method of capturing and retaining an image. Talbot used a camera obscura for
his sketches, one of which was Villa Melsi, sketched in 1832.
Later he wrote: -
"In October, 1833, I was amusing myself
on the lovely shores of the Lake of Como in Italy, taking sketches with a camera Lucida,
or rather, I should say, attempting to make them; but
with the smallest possible amount of success.
After various fruitless attempts I laid aside
the instrument and came to the conclusion that its use required a previous knowledge of
drawing, which unfortunately I did not possess.
I then thought of trying again a method, which I had tried many years before. This method
was to take a Camera obscura and to throw the image of the objects on a piece of
paper
in its focus—fairy pictures, creations of a moment, and destined as rapidly to fade
away.
It was during these thoughts that the idea occurred to me… how
charming it would be if it were possible to cause these natural images to imprint
themselves durably and remain fixed on the paper!"
The earliest surviving paper negative is of
the now famous latticed window of the library at Laycock Abbey, Wiltshire, where he lived.
It is dated August 1835. The picture is small, and poor in quality compared with the
striking images produced by the Daguerreotype process. Talbot’s process in general never reached the popularity of the
Daguerreotype process, partly because the latter produced such amazing detail, but partly
because Talbot asked so much for the rights to use his process. His asking price was £21 to amateurs, with the risk of
prosecution if one ever sold a picture.
A writer of the time commented:-
"He is a man of some wealth, I
believe, but he demands so high a price for a single right that none can be found who have
the temerity to purchase."
Consequently Calotypes never
flourished as they might have and the fault must lie largely with him.
The newly formed Calotype club
sought unsuccessfully to persuade Talbot to relax his restrictions in order to encourage
the growth of photography. It is claimed that Talbot, somewhat put out by the fact that
Daguerre had received many honours whilst he had been given noon, was reacting
accordingly. It is said that members of the club even sought to obtain a title for Talbot,
but that the scientists they approached for the endorsement of this plea, such as Faraday
and Herschel, were not prepared to lend their names to the proposal; Faraday
had rejected the offer of a title, whilst Herschel may not have been too pleased by the
fact that Talbot made no acknowledgement of the contributions made by the Rev. Robert
Reade, and indeed by himself.
Sadly, Talbot’s name was somewhat tarnished by his series of attempts to enforce
his patent, including a claim in 1854 that the Collodion process was also covered by his
calotype patent. That case was lost, and from then onwards, knowing that the faster and
better collodion process was free for all to use, there were no further restrictions and
photography began to take off in a big way.
The Royal Photographic Society has two complete sets of the limited edition of
"Pencil of Nature", together with many of Talbot's letters, books and documents.
Henry Fox Talbot
Chronology
1800-1877
!831
Becomes one of the youngest fellows of
the royal Society.
1833
Travels to Italy, uses a camera Lucida.
1834
Early attempts at photography.
1834
Learns of Wedgwood's experiments. Tries
cliché-verre.
1835
Summer— First experiments with
camera obscura. In August of 1835, produces the window at Lucock Abbey image, which is
still preserved.
1836
Uses silver iodide.
1836/39
Turns his attention to "more
important work."
1839
January 1st, Presents a
description of his process to the Royal Society.
February: describes his process and fixing methods to the Royal Society.
Writes letter to Biot in France claming priority over Daguerre.
March: letter to Biot describing silver bromide process.
1840
Sends examples of his images to Biot
without much of a response. In September discovers the latent image and (physical)
development.
1841
Patents process in England.
1844
Publishes Sun Pictures of Scotland and
Annals of the artists of Spain, the first photo-illustrated art book together with Sir W.
Stirling.
1852
All his major patents are dissolved.
1873
First Honorary Member of the Royal
Photographic Society.
1877
Dies at Lucock Abbey.
Last updated on
Monday August 30, 2004
Copyright 2002
By Scribblers Inc.
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