Book Description
William Henry Fox Talbot--a scientist, mathematician, author and artist--is credited with being the inventor of photography as we know it. In mid-1834 he began to experiment with light-sensitive chemistry, and in January 1839 he announced his invention of the photogenic drawing, two weeks after Louis-Jacques Mande Daguerre's daguerreotype process debuted in France. Talbot's improved process, the calotype, was introduced in 1840. This invention, which shortened exposure times and facilitated making multiple prints from a single negative, became the basis for photography as it is practiced today. The Getty Museum's collection includes approximately 350 of Talbot's photographs, about 50 of which are reproduced here in full color with commentary on each image. Also included are an introduction to the book and a chronological overview of the artist's life as well as an edited transcript of a colloquium on Talbot's career.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Called "quietly exuberant" by the Easy Reader, the J. Paul Getty Museum's In Focus series is devoted to photographers well represented in the collection. This volume examines the life and work of William Henry Fox Talbot (English, 1800-1877), one of the seminal figures in the history of the medium. The Getty Museum's holdings include about 350 pictures by this scientist and artist, approximately 50 of which are discussed here by Larry J. Schaaf, an independent photohistorian and research professor at the University of Glasgow and director of the Correspondence of William Henry Fox Talbot Project. The images are reproduced in full color, showing the results of Talbot's early chemical experiments. An October 2000 colloquium on Talbot at the Getty Museum featured the informed commentary of Dr. Schaaf as well as Geoffrey Batchen, David Featherstone, James Fee, Nancy Keeler, Weston Naef, and Michael Ware. Their enlightening remarks, transcribed and edited here, complement the analysis of the plates. Concluding the book is a chronology of the inventor's achievements, which are set into the larger context of the beginnings of photography.