[Dandelion Seeds]

William Henry Fox Talbot

[Dandelion Seeds]

Photogravure

Sheet: 15.1 x 11.3 cm

Plate: 12.5 x 9.4 cm

Image: 10.5 x 7.6 cm

1858

William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877) was one of the first photographers and made major contributions to the photographic process. He is also remembered as the holder of a patent which affected the early development of photography in England. He was educated at Harrow and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gained the Person prize in 1820, and graduated as twelfth wrangler in 1821. From 1822 to 1872 he frequently communicated papers to the Royal Society, many of them on mathematical subjects. At an early period he had begun his optical researches, which were to have such important results in connection with photography. Talbot's original contributions included the concept of a negative from which many positive prints can be made, and the use of gallic acid for developing latent image. Talbot was also a noted photographer who made major contributions to the development of photography as an artistic medium. His work in the 1840s on photo-mechanical reproduction led to the creation of the photoglyphic engraving process, the precursor to photogravure.

This experimental proof is a fine example of the capacity of Talbot's "photoglyphic engraving" to produce photographic results that could be printed on a press, using printer's ink-a more permanent process than photographs made with light and chemicals. The image here was photographically transferred to the copper engraving plate by laying the seeds directly on the photosensitized plate and exposing it to light, without the aid of a camera. Equally reminiscent of Talbot's early experiments, this image is part of Talbot's lifelong effort to apply his various photographic inventions to the field of botany. In a letter tipped into the Bertoloni Album, Talbot wrote, "I think that my newly invented art will be a great help to botanists". Such uses were still prominent in Talbot's thinking years later when developing his photogravure process; he noted in 1863 that "if this art [of photoglyphic engraving] had been invented a hundred years ago, it would have been very useful during the infancy of botany."

This piece is interesting due to it just seeming to be a photograph of dandelion seeds, yet there is much background to this piece and it’s unintentionally being artistic without trying. This piece was chosen first because it was a different way of still life, using photography and engraving being a unique process. And the fact that the artist pioneered this as photography was just beginning and he was not really intending to create a new art medium. This piece is both historic and simplistically beautiful. The viewer wonders how this is seen, it appears to be through a lens but one may interpret how- a camera, microscope, telescope- and that all depends on how one views the world. The history behind the piece made me want to bring it into the gallery, and yet the more one sees the piece the more it causes one to think (or even have the opposite effect by clearing one’s mind and imagining the seeds flowing on the wind).