'This sheet was mounted with five other photogenic drawings of flowers, leaves, and keys on one page of an album of prints, drawings, and photographs assembled by Henry Bright (1784–1869), a merchant from a prominent Bristol family and former member of the British Parliament. It records the form of an egg case from the Scyliorhinidae family of sharks, native to the North Atlantic. Because the marine specimen did not lie flat against the photosensitized paper as a pressed leaf or flower would, the light passed over and around portions of its long tendrils, giving the illusion of the egg case still floating amid the vegetation of the sea bed' (Metropolitan Museum of Art catalogue record).
This photogenic drawing of a buttercup have traditionally attributed to been attributed to Nicolaas Henneman and William Henry Fox Talbot but has more recently been linked to the early female photographic pioneer, Sarah Anne Bright. Her photographs are discussed in a project blog.
To learn more see Professor Schaaf's talk The Damned Leaf: Musings on History, Hysteria & Historiography.
