The Australian Connection

25 Jan 2019: Snow is falling as I write here in Oxford, but that’s not the only thing falling hereabouts. Like the snow, as work continues on the catalogue raisonné the number of records with no image attached continues to drop. For that reason, we are grateful to all the Talbot owners who still send us images to …

A dash of colour

18 Jan 2019: You probably miss our weekly blogs as much as we do. But now that we’re in the middle of what is often thought of as the darkest winter month we thought it would be good to bring some extra added colour into our lives. Easier said than done when our project is dedicated to monochrome …

Where did the time go?

21 Dec 2018: As 2018 hurtles to a close our thoughts begin to turn towards next year, the future, and what may be in store. When I look back on the past year I can’t help but think it’s just as well we can’t predict what’s coming down the track. For those of us in the northern hemisphere, …

Happy Family photographs

14 Sep 2018: There’s a pleasing symmetry to this week’s blog. In a way it mirror’s last week’s blog on paper photographs by a photographer better known for his daguerreotypes. Conversely, this week’s blog concerns daguerreotype portraits of a photographer better known for his photographs on paper. Our guest author this week is Jason Wright. Jason is a …

Claudet’s Talbotype (or Calotype) Portraits

7 Sep 2018: Now that the days are shorter, and the nights are drawing in, it is time to put the Summer Pleasure posts away and return to larger portions about Talbot and his work. Perhaps this is the blog equivalent of moving from summer salads to autumnal comfort food. Our first big helping of the season comes …

Summer Pleasures: A tale of two cities

31 Aug 2018: Last week’s blog looked at the international dissemination of photographs by Talbot and his circle, so it is fitting that this week’s guest blog comes to us from one of those distant locations: St. Petersburg, Russia. We are pleased to introduce you to Dr. Maria Medvedeva, Head of the Scientific Archives of the Institute for …

Summer Pleasures: What’s in a name?

17 Aug 2018: Guest post by Brian Liddy The things you learn while working on a catalogue raisonné dedicated to the work of a nineteenth century photographer. Of course, nothing should come as a surprise when that nineteenth century photographer is the polymath, William Henry Fox Talbot. Recently, Stephen Harris kindly supplied us with Latin names for many …

Summer Pleasures: In and Around Bath

10 Aug 2018: This week’s contribution is courtesy of guest author, Dr Michael Pritchard FRPS, and comes from his home, the beautiful city of Bath in the south-west of England. As Michael shows us, Bath is a special place with many Talbot connections. We are especially pleased to welcome Michael’s post, as regular followers of the blog will …

Summer Pleasures: A cabinet of botanical curiosities

3 Aug 2018: This summer’s flowers and leaves are fleeting and will fade in time. For that reason it’s strange to think that we can still see those flowers and leaves Talbot used many seasons ago to create his photogenic drawings of botanical specimens, sometimes rendered in incredible photographic detail. This week sees the welcome return of Dr. …

Summer Pleasures: Musical scales

27 Jul 2018: Until now, Thaddeus Lipinski is a name you would not have been aware of when you visit the Talbot catalogue raisonné and read the weekly blogs. Thaddeus has been instrumental in the initial appearance of the website, as well as helping to deliver the blog posts since the project launched three years ago (just think …

Summer Pleasures: Sundial, symmetry and Simmons

20 Jul 2018: Guest post by Simon Murison-Bowie In 1658 Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1723) — ‘the only All Souls genius’ according to John Simmons (of whom more in a minute) — designed a sundial which was installed centrally on the five-bay south-facing façade of All Souls college chapel. Accurate to the minute, it was used up until the …