The Guppy and the Priest

30 Mar 2018: Near the end of the last century, I visited the Cambridge home of the late Nicholas Guppy. He and his wife Anna were most accommodating, especially since their cottage was filled to the brim with extensive collections. Nicholas was descended from Amelia Elizabeth Guppy (1808-1886), a wonderfully mercurial early photographer, notorious as much for her …

The Traveller’s Camera

23 Mar 2018: At the risk of intruding upon Roger Watson’s hunt for Talbot’s equipment (and we look forward to more blogs on this topic from him soon) there is a particular piece of kit that has always intrigued me, Talbot’s Traveller’s Camera. Sadly, rather like the manuscript basis for Grant Romer’s Io-types, the camera is known to …

Of Loss, Lauds, Leaps, and Lazarus

16 Mar 2018: Given Henry’s early and intense interest in mathematics, we must not forget that Wednesday this week was National Pi Day (3.14) and renew our pondering of just what Talbot might have thought of digital photography. Like many, I was devastated when Monday morning brought the terrible news that Pete James had passed away the previous …

Talbot’s Rouen, a tale of two cities

9 Mar 2018: I am delighted that the ever-productive sleuth Rose Teanby returns with another in her series of examinations of Talbot’s photographic responses to the industrialising world around him. But first, we need to celebrate a double birthday that occurred this week, on Wednesday 7 March. I am happy to recognise Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (7 March 1765 …

‘Taken From The Actual Objects Which They Represent’

2 Mar 2018: Corporate records are amongst the most elusive of archives. As time goes by, the paper piles up and becomes increasingly irrelevant to current operations. When a company winds down its business, few care about preserving the past. And when a business spirals into failure, there is even less likelihood that the historical record will be …