William Henry Fox-Talbot

My interest in the immediate history of photography’s birth lies with Fox-Talbot. Fox-Talbot was a true polymath; his intellectual curiosity engaged him in the fields of Mathematics, Chemistry, Astronomy, Botany, Philosophy, Philology, Egyptology, the Classics and Art History, he was also a Member of Parliament. He published four books and twenty-seven scholarly articles on a wide variety of subjects. His

interested in optics and microscopes lead him created the first polarising microscope. Fox-Talbot was a frequent visitor to Europe where he presented talks and attended conferences. In October 1833, on one of his many visits to Italy, he meticulously documented his visit in his Journal and Diary with copious notes and sketches. On this occasion, he marvelled at the sublime view of Lake Como from the balcony of his hotel. As was his usual practice he endeavoured to capture the view with a sketch. To compensate for his limitations as an artist he was using a drawing aid called a

A Brief History of Photography

Camera Lucida26_{, an instrument designed by his good friend William Hyde}

Wollaston. However, the instrument was frustrating to use. If accidently moved it was almost impossible to reposition. In frustration Fox-Talbot reverted to another drawing aid; his portable Camera Obscura27_{, which he had used on many previous}

occasions and which he felt revealed a much more pleasing and almost magical image of the view upon its screen. Fox-Talbot wrote in his diary:

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. [I] reflected on the inimitable beauty of the pictures of nature's painting which the glass lens of the Camera Obscura throws upon the 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 upon the paper!(Fox-Talbot, 1844a)

Fox-Talbot’s recourse to the use of a Camera Obscura, and the visionary words of that final sentence proved prophetic; paving the way for the invention of the

26 _{A Camera Lucida is an optical device used as a drawing aid by artists. The Camera}

Lucida performs an optical superimposition of the subject being viewed upon the surface upon which the artist is drawing. The artist sees both scene and drawing surface

simultaneously, as in a photographic double exposure. The Camera Lucida was patented in 1807 by William Hyde Wollaston

27 _{The Camera Obscura (Latin; camera for "vaulted chamber/room", obscura for "dark", together}

"darkened chamber/room") is an optical device that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen, directly or via a 45 deg. mirror. They are used as a drawing aid, for scientific and astronomical observations and for entertainment. Early versions were large fixed devices and used pinholes, later lenses were used. Fox-Talbot used a portable device. The earliest

reference to the Camera Obscura is in the writings of the Chinese philosopher Mozi 407 – 390 BCE.

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technology we now call photography.

The diary entry documents the originary conception a new technology, what Fox- Talbot would initially call, Drawing withthe Pencil of Light, later Photogenic Drawing

and finally, the Calotype. A technology for mark-making with light had been born. The framing and optical look, the mediation of the view, provided by the Camera Obscura is an aspect of the aesthetic of photograph that is frequently overlooked in the discourse on representation, although there is reference to the Camera Obscura as a metaphor for cognitive or perceptual mediation in other areas of discourse

(Shomali, 2010, p.54; Crary, 1992, p.5). In many of its applications the aesthetics of the mediation imparted by the Camera Obscura that inspired Fox-Talbot, the vignette, the altered contrast, would have been considered technical artefact in some

photographic circles, rather than aesthetic mediation. The history tells us that the search for technical perfection was one of the principal drivers of photographic technology in the pursuit technical flawlessness and absolute verisimilitude. The effort to remove any obvious technically induced artefact from the process new no bounds. In contrast one of the defining links between snapshot photography and its primitive primal technical origins is the unconscious acceptance of both technical and operator induced faults and indiscretions. The technical mediation and induced faults of the snapshot image contributing to the notion of the snapshot aesthetic (Szarkowski, 2007).

A Brief History of Photography

clear from his writings that his interest in visual references was so that he could share the enjoyment of his experiences with others in a visual form. What he succeeded in inventing was a mnemonic-mark making technology that used light to make marks that could be fixed.