Top of Sharington's Tower, Lacock Abbey, Taken from the Roof above the South Gallery

William Henry Fox Talbot

October 14, 1840 · Salted paper print from paper negative · Photographs

Talbot's earliest camera images required exposures of an hour or more, but on September 23, 1840, he made a startling discovery that dramatically increased the medium's potential. He found that an exposure of mere seconds, leaving no visible trace on the chemically treated paper, nonetheless left a latent image that would appear when immersed in a solution of gallic acid. This discovery opened up a whole new world of possible subjects for photography. In the days that followed, Talbot trained his camera on various features of Lacock Abbey and its grounds. Made only a few weeks after his September discovery, this photograph reveals Talbot's newly found ability to render the tones and textures of masonry and glass and the myriad architectural details of the sixteenth-century corner tower, built by the Abbey's first lay owner.

Artist

William Henry Fox Talbot

Date

October 14, 1840

Medium

Salted paper print from paper negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

The Rubel Collection, Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee, and Anonymous Gifts, 1997