Summer pleasures: The Hungerford and Clifton Suspension Bridges

28 Aug 2015: In a daring composition, Talbot commands our attention to the bustle and speed of the rapidly growing metropolis of London. His central subject is the Hungerford pedestrian bridge, started in 1841 and opened on 1 May 1845. The boats that it was meant to replace compete for our attention, seemingly racing onshore to get ahead …

More on ‘The Damned Leaf’

22 Aug 2015: Sometimes what you are seeking is right under you nose (or in this case, long forgotten on one of my bookshelves). For those new to this blog, you might first want to scroll down to the posting for 19 June. It outlines the key points of a lecture that I gave recently about a controversial …

Summer pleasures: ‘A Flower of Heath’ for Sir John Herschel

21 Aug 2015: I cannot help but be reminded of Anna Atkins’s beautiful cyanotypes of algae when seeing this brace of negatives. Echoing her images, this botanical specimen is floating in a dreamy space, seemingly detached from gravity, freed from its surroundings. However, the plant is a terrestrial one, representative of the more than 600 species of Erica …

Summer pleasures: A Group Taking Tea at Lacock Abbey

14 Aug 2015: The process of arranging group photographs can fairly be compared to the problem of herding cats. Unlike drawing, photography at least captures all the players simultaneously, however they stand. Writing about ‘The Ladder’ in The Pencil of Nature, Talbot explained that “when a group of persons has been artistically arranged, and trained by a little …

Summer pleasures: ‘A Bush of Hydrangea in Flower’

7 Aug 2015: The pompoms of the hydrangea insistently demand the attention of the gardener. Its name, derived from the Greek ‘hydor’ (water) and ‘angos’ (jar or vessel), reflects its copious thirst for water. Hydrangea are at their best when the sunshine is plentiful, as it is here. Most varieties bloom in the spring or early summer but …