Talbot

Oriel window taken by Fox Talbot. The image is archived at the National Media Museum in Bradford http://nationalmediamuseumblog.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/the-birth-of-photography-30th-birthday-countdown/

 

Oriel Window by Fox Talbot. In the collection of the Metropolitan Museum http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1997.382.1

The two images presented here are both by Fox Talbot. The first is regarded as the very first negative image created using a camera obscura, and was produced in the summer of 1835. It is the size of a postage stamp. Using a a larger camera, Talbot produced another larger rendition of the same scene. It is presumed to have been taken during the same summer or possibly in 1839 (according to the MET’s website http://nationalmediamuseumblog.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/the-birth-of-photography-30th-birthday-countdown/).

The reason I am posting these images here is perhaps obvious but I wanted to see the two of them side by side. If possible, I would like to see any other versions of this image so that I can compare them. They were apparently taken from the mantel piece opposite the oriel window. What strikes me is the reason for taking the same scene again and again, especially given Geoffrey Batchen’s theory that Talbot did not produce images randomly. Batchen even asks the question as to why Talbot would produce 6 versions of this scene (Batchen, 2000: 7). Although Larry Schaaf (the authority on Talbot) would say that mantlepiece from which the camera was placed was a convenient height for his experiments, Batchen is not so sure suggesting that this window was emblematic to Talbot. He asks the question: what is it emblematic of, and then proposes that the window is emblematic of itself: the photogenic drawing process. This is a very interesting point. Also, from my casual understanding, the window is the only thing that Talbot photograph multiple times. Perhaps this is because it enabled a fair experiment to take place, but perhaps also because it allowed him to engage with the conceptual potential of the medium by removing the number of distractions. To be honest, it will be impossible to really know. But, it does present an interesting backdrop for rephotography.