|
Biographies |
||||||||
H J P Arnold, William Henry Fox Talbot; Pioneer of Photography
and Man of Science
|
Buckland, the former curator of the Royal Photographic Society collection, gives a lively and sensitive account of Talbot's activities, concentrating on photography. Whereas the text is less extensive and less documented than Arnold's, Buckland's selection of Talbot's images is superb. The quality of the monochromatic reproductions is uneven but the full colour reproductions give a very good sense of the originals.
This work examines the invention of photography from the contemporaneous points of view of Talbot and his scientific friend, Sir John Herschel. The progress of invention was governed not only by scientific and technical advances, but also by more mundane factors such as the weather, the inventor's state of health, and the misunderstandings common in human endeavours. This book contains numerous full-colour illustrations of very early Talbot and Herschel photographs.
Talbot's Scottish-born granddaughter changed her surname to Talbot when she inherited Lacock Abbey. More than anyone else, Matilda Talbot was responsible for preserving Talbot's archives and his photographic legacy and for inspiring scholars to study his work. Her title is accurately descriptive, and there is very little in this volume directly about Henry Talbot. However, it gives a good sense of the environment in which the inventor of photography worked.