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• 1 2021-03-01T22:27:59+00:00 William Henry Fox Talbot and His Work In Photography 5 By Diego Sunico plain 2021-03-15T20:07:12+00:00

  
       William Henry Fox Talbot proved himself to be a lot of things throughout his life. He was a husband, an Englishman, and a political Liberal member in the House of Commons. However, Mr. Talbot was most importantly both a scholar and an artist. Whether it be his degree from Trinity College or list of written texts on studies, Talbot’s list of successful achievements stems from his amazing knowledge of the world itself. After having researched botany, philosophy, mathematics, art history, and more [1]; William Henry Fox Talbot’s education in a multitude of topics has allowed him to excel in mostly anything. Yet, even with all these great feats, the one greatest accomplishment of Talbot’s is his work in the development of photography.

   

       Talbot’s original motivation was due to him being frustrated with his own draftsmanship and by his lack of satisfaction with camera obscura techniques. He wished to develop a way to imprint light onto paper; in a way that allowed the picture created to stay on the paper indefinitely [2]. The experiments for this project started in January of 1834 in his home of Lacock Abbey. After some trial and error, Talbot was able to find a new discovery. By darkening a piece of fine writing paper and coating it with salt and a silver nitrate coating, Talbot saw that adding a second coating of salt to this concoction would stop any more fading or darkening to the paper. With this new technique, Talbot decided to test it out by putting a botanical plant over his experiment. The outcome was a picture in which
  wherever light had struck the paper, it would darken, but if light was not striking a specific part of the paper, it would stay white. Thus creating a basic image of the botanical plant that Talbot had used for the experiment. The new art discovery is what Talbot would call “the art of photogenic drawing.” Another small note to add would be that Talbot would insert these pieces of chemical papers into small boxes and put them in different areas where light was very distinct; creating these small images of light and slowly developing the first steps towards a real camera.

       In around 1839, Talbot would soon discover a new source of motivation: a rivalry. A french-man by the name of Louis Daguerre was publicized around the world as a man who had discovered a way to imprint precise camera pictures onto metal plates. This announcement caused Talbot to quickly rush into his own research of developing pictures, and before Daguerre could show his process of picture making, Talbot presented his pictures and studies to the Royal Society instead. It was stated then that Talbot’s “art of photogenic drawing”  was better suited for flat surfaces like cloth and plants. Although Talbot did create an amazing invention, he was not satisfied with the final product and sought for more. It was clear to him that developing a way to quickly, accurately, and permanently make pictures would be the ultimate goal, and this goal was soon achieved in the year 1840. By using a solution of gallic acid, Talbot’s paper would only need seconds of exposure to light in order to create a complete and precise image. In 1841, Talbot patented this technique and called it the “calotype” process. This changed the world of photography as the speed and precision of the technique was never heard of before.

       The next evolution to Talbot’s photography came from a friend of his named Sir John Herschel. This man suggested that Talbot use the hyposulfite of soda in order to make the images produced by Talbot’s technique be more permanent. After a few experiments, it was shown that the hyposulfite used was a lot more fixated than the salt that Talbot had originally used [3]. After it was discovered that the hypo did indeed work better, Talbot adopted his friend Herschel’s idea for any future photography projects. In fact, it was so useful that hyposulfite is even used now for traditional black and white images. This was the last idea that cemented Talbot’s photography technique.

       With all the pieces in place, Talbot had decided it was time to officially publicize his photography everywhere. He promoted it throughout his home country, and even traveled to other locations in order to spread the word of his game changing photography techniques. Talbot’s advances to patent his work in places like France proved itself to be unsuccessful, but at home he was able to publish a book of the photographs that he had taken himself; commercializing his work throughout the towns and cities [4]. This book was called Pencil of Nature, and it proved to be a defining moment  when it came to Talbot’s fame in the photography world. His work on this book came from some of his first experiments with photography to some of Talbot’s later, more developed pictures. Yet even till now, everyone finds his pictures to be absolutely fascinating in detail for the time and age that it was developed in. 

       A few decades later, Talbot would be found furthering studies in the photography business. He had perfected the correct chemicals and aspects of photography that it would become useful for fields in botany, history, and even art. The last twenty five years of Talbot’s life was given to his study in photography as he worked and worked to develop it more and more.  Although his education in the multitude of fields in which he studied in college could have given a large amount of opportunities throughout the world, Talbot chose to spend his precious time in developing and improving photography, and that is an idea that history will forever be grateful for. His work is not to the level as photography is today, but If it was not for William Henry Fox Talbot, we may not have discovered and developed photography so easily. Along with a few other scientists and artists, Talbot will always be known as one of the fathers and creators of photography.