
RELAXING COMMUNICATION




LACOCK ABBEY
The home of modern photography




The following poem is in celebration of William Henry Fox Talbot's contribution to the photographic process as we know it today .
TALBOT, William Henry Fox
b. 11 February 1800; d. 17 September 1877
Talbot’d oriel seed for optical visions
Spawning silver’d images capturing
Life betwixt glass, vitreous fractures
Evoking mind’s immortal remembrance.
Tokens for love and happiness, membranes of virtues;
Keepsakes of souls long since gone,
Dreams for fulfilling
Laughter for making
Hearts for entwining
Lost is the time yet caught in a blink,
Solace and peace strong in the thought.
Bewilder and ruffle,
Fluster and flurry,
Lost in a moment
When light not imprisoned,
And joy when caprice is the slave,
With implausible depiction portrayed
Aperture of Infinity Martin Billings 1945 -
Talbot's Photography
The earliest surviving paper negative is of the now famous Oriel window in the South Gallery at Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire, where he lived. It is dated August 1835. Talbot's comments read "When first made, the squares of glass about 200 in number could be counted, with help of a lens."

January 1839 was a busy month as far as announcements of discoveries were concerned. On 7 January Daguerre announced the development of his process. A few days later Talbot wrote to Arago, who had promoted Daguerre's invention, suggesting that it was he, not Daguerre, who had invented the photographic process. (At that time he was unaware that the process was entirely different).
At the time the sensitivity of the process was extremely poor. Then, in September 1840 Fox Talbot discovered the phenomenon of the latent image. It is said that this was a chance discovery, when he attempted to re-sensitise some paper which had failed to work in previous experiments; as the chemical was applied, an image, previously invisible, began to appear.
In 1844 Talbot began issuing a book entitled "The Pencil of Nature", the first commercial book to be illustrated with actual photographs.
Talbot summarised his achievement thus:
"I do not profess to have perfected an art but to have commenced one, the limits of which it is not possible at present exactly to ascertain. I only claim to have based this art on a secure foundation."