[Diogenes without Sun, 17' Exposure]

Reminiscing in the last days of his life, William Henry Fox Talbot recalled in the text he was preparing for Gaston Tissandier’s History and Handbook of Photography (1878) that the

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“discovery of the latent image and the mode of its development was made rather suddenly on September 20 and 21, 1840. This immediately changed my whole system of work in photography. The acceleration obtained was so great, amounting to fully one hundred times, that, whereas formerly it took me an hour to take a pretty large camera view of a building, the same now only took about half a minute; so that instead of having to watch the camera for a long period, and guard against gusts of wind and other accidents, I had now to watch it for barely a minute or so.”

Writing about his new calotype process contemporaneously in the Literary Gazette of February 13, 1841, he explained that “this increased rapidity is accompanied with an increased sharpness and distinctness in the outlines of the objects,—an effect which is very advantageous and pleasing.”

This print, sent to Sir David Brewster, a good friend and accomplished Scottish journalist and scientist, was inscribed on the verso in ink by Talbot “The Hall at Lacock Abbey H. F. Talbot phot: Oct. 6. 18 17’ diffused daylight.” It shows a wall niche with a sculpture of the fourth-century B.C. philosopher Diogenes. Whereas the Greek sought truth with the aid of the light from his lantern, it might be said that Talbot found his truths in the capture of shadows.

Larry Schaaf, William Henry Fox Talbot, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2002), 40. ©2002 J. Paul Getty Trust.