Fixing the Shadows

In our latest Understanding the Image class we watched a documentary titled " The Genius of Photography," which was produced by the BBC. This documentary explored the evolution of photography, from its origins in the 1800s to modern day society. "The Genius of Photography" offers a powerful insight into the realm of photography. It has the power to both fascinate and grab the attention of viewers-even those that do not know much about photography as an artistic medium. I myself found this documentary very interesting and enjoyable.

          "The Genius of Photography" also delves into the work of particular photographers, all of whom made significant contributions to the development of photography, which was officially created by 1839. One such photographer was Henry Fox Talbot. William Henry Fox Talbot (11 February 1800-17 September 1877) was a British inventor, photographer and politician to name but a few. He invented the calotype process-an early photographic process which involved using paper coated with silver iodide. It is also suggested that Talbot was a holder of a patent which supposedly affected the early development of commercial photography in Great Britain. However,  Talbot's  decision to later patent his processes caused conflict between himself and rival Louis Daguerre; a French artist and physicist who also made contributions to the development of photography.

London by Henry Fox Talbot

            Unbeknownst to Talbot and Daguerre, they had both been working on their experiments roughly around the same time, which coincided with one another. Indeed, when the first reports of the French Academy of Sciences announcement of Daguerre's work reached Talbot, he assumed that Daguerre had stolen his ideas. Talbot was furious and he immediately wrote a letter to the Academy claiming ownership. Although it soon became clear that Daguerre's process was completely different to Talbot's. Talbot's calotype process produced a translucent original negative image from which multiple positives could be made by contact printing. This gave it an advantage over the daguerreotype process which gave out an opaque positive and could only be duplicated by using a camera. But this advantage did not mean that calotypes would displace daguerreotypes. This was because Talbot had patented his processes, so license fees had to be paid. Meanwhile, Daguerre had made his available to the public free of charge. So Britain missed out on this golden opportunity and this did not endear Talbot, who was now very wealthy, to the public. He eventually relented and only charged professional photographers for using his process.