Friday, July 6, 2012

Friday's Flashback: A Pioneer in Photography

One of the things I most looked forward to planning our trip were the photography opportunities.  I'm sure you never would have guessed that.  I probably had about 10 GB of pictures on my 16 GB card at this point so when we entered Lacock Abbey and found an exhibit on the "father of modern photography" it was a nice surprise.


I wrote in my post from England a little about my amazement at the ingenuity of people.  "Oh, how charming it would be if it were possible to cause these natural images to imprint themselves durably and remain fixed upon the paper!  And why should it not be possible?  I asked myself."  Why indeed?  I for one am glad he took it upon himself to make his dream a reality.


A one-hour exposure time is hard to imagine.

I think the thing we found most interesting was that Talbot was responsible for the first negative.  The earliest surviving negative is of a picture he took of the below window.
There was also an exhibit about George Bernard Shaw.  Some of the self-portraits displayed were familiar to me, but I think I most recognized his name from his writing.  I didn't realize his relationship to photography in the UK.


I really like this picture.
Though I don't look nearly as cool, it reminded me of this one.


I think this is a more accurate picture of my photographic history, though.

 

Speaking of images fixed durably upon paper, I really need to order some prints.  It's been awhile.

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