Fox-Talbot, William Henry (1800–77), pioneering photographer
He left his mark on the fields of mathematics, physics, botany, archaeology and astronomy, but it is as a pioneer in photography that he is best remembered. In 1833 while an MP, he began researching a method of creating negative images on paper impregnated with silver chloride. In 1839 he published a paper on “photogenic drawing”, spurred on by the successes of Daguerre, but unlike his French rival, he received little public support or money. Despite disinterest from the Royal Society he continued his research at his home, Lacock Abbey, in Wiltshire, and he patented a process in 1840 that reduced exposure time by using a chemical developer.
In 1843 he set up with his former valet, Nicolaas Henneman, one of the world’s first commercial photographic laboratories, The Reading Establishment, in Baker Street in Reading for three years, which some locals thought was a secret forging den. The building is still standing. There he made salt prints for his illustrated book The Pencil of Nature. The photos he took mean that some of the earliest photographs are of Reading. Legal challenges to his patent meant that although he was accredited with the invention of photography he was refused rights to newer processes. Talbot issued various publications of his own work, but the quality of silver based photographs was unstable and faded. From 1852 he developed methods of photographic engraving, allowing him to print images in a more conventional permanent manner. This finally won him some recognition and awards in 1862 the International Exhibition in London awarded him a prize medal and in 1863 Edinburgh University awarded him an honorary doctor of laws degree. His work continued until his death in 1877.
Link to the Dictionary of National Biography (only from a Library terminal).
William Fox-Talbot
Early Photography in Reading from Reading Museum
Other External Links to more information:
BBC Biography of Fox-Talbot
Fox-Talbot Biography at the University of Glasgow
Photographs of the Reading Establishment in 1846 from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Fox-Talbot Photographs at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television
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