Frederick Langenheim Looking at Talbotypes

W. & F. Langenheim|William Langenheim|Frederick Langenheim

ca. 1849–51 · Daguerreotype · Photographs

In 1849 the Langenheim brothers bought the United States patent for making photographs from paper negatives from William Henry Fox Talbot, the medium's inventor. The Langenheims also continued to produce daguerreotypes, such as this brilliant composition in which Frederick examines a group of Talbotype portraits-including his own-that may themselves be copies of daguerreotypes. In other words, this image presents three distinct subjects: Frederick Langenheim, photography itself, and the very process of reproduction. Using the nonreproducible daguerreotype process to make a picture about reproduction may seem paradoxical, but the incomparable detail seen here, from the visible writing on the mounts of the paper prints to the finely woven pattern in Frederick's silk vest, would have been impossible to capture with a paper negative.

Artist

W. & F. Langenheim|William Langenheim|Frederick Langenheim

Date

ca. 1849–51

Medium

Daguerreotype

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005