Book Description

This book chronicles for the first time in a detailed fashion the critical days of the invention and development of photography. In particular it explores the relationship between two Englishmen who played a key role in photography's early years; the preeminent scientist Sir John Herschel and William Henry Fox Talbot, the artist and scientist who had invented his own photographic process years before Louis Daguerre announced his discovery in Paris in 1839. Drawing on hundreds of Herschel's and Talbot's letters, notebooks, and diaries, Larry J. Schaaf tells the story of the evolution of photography as expressed through their words, and in the process he sheds light on some questions over which others have puzzled. Given that the camera and the necessary chemistry had coexisted for years, why rather than how was photography invented? Why did Talbot keep his own photographic process secret until Daguerre's announcement? Why did Herschel make such fundamental contributions to the process of photography, yet take very few pictures himself? Who or what provided the visual training that allowed Talbot to grow into the first photographic artist? Schaaf skillfully describes the complexities of the events, the personalities and interests of the participants, the often vital role played by trivial circumstances, and the chaotic nature of the progress of photography. He narrates the rivalry between Talbot and Daguerre, showing how it mirrored the differences between France and Great Britain in their support of science and art. Enhanced by more than 100 reproductions in color and in duotone of some of the earliest photographs ever made, this book vividly re-creates both the invention of an art and the art of invention.