With rarely seen images, this handsome, affordable volume shows Talbot's wide-ranging interests.
This beautiful publication serves as a primer on the work of William Henry Fox Talbot, a true interdisciplinary innovator who drew on his knowledge of art, botany, chemistry and optics to become one of the inventors of photography in 1839. Talbot’s “photogenic drawings” (photograms), calotypes and salted paper prints are some of the first-ever examples of images captured on paper.
Accompanying an exhibition at Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh opening in November 2017, this book brings together more than 30 photographs by Talbot that demonstrate his wide-ranging interests, including nature, still-life, portraiture, architecture and landscape. Some of these images are previously unpublished. Through thematic groupings elucidated by noted Talbot scholar Larry Schaaf, the book reveals the photographer’s early striving to test the boundaries of his medium at a historic moment when art and science intersected. With its luminous reproductions of Talbot’s fragile works, this publication demonstrates that, in its earliest days, photography required a form of magic-making and innovation that continues to inspire people today.
William Henry Fox Talbot and the Promise of Photography
Category: Photographer Monographs & Art Books
Reviews: star
star
star
star
star
Author: William Henry Fox Talbot, Dan Leers, Larry Schaaf
Publisher: Carnegie Museum Of Art
Publication Date:
2017
Print Length: 96 pages
Language: English
Price: paid
paid
paid
Selected Books by This Photographer
The Photographic Art of William Henry Fox Talbot
2000 - Princeton University Press
William Henry Fox Talbot, Larry J. Schaaf
Book From the Same Publisher
expand_circle_rightLatest Books in This Category
John Baer: The Extraordinary Ordinary: A Memoir in Photographs, 1945–1954
Sep 2026 — John Baer Archive



