{"id":33196,"date":"2026-01-14T01:03:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T05:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/?p=33196"},"modified":"2026-01-11T01:23:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:23:54","slug":"from-the-very-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/from-the-very-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"from the very beginning …"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

cover shot of Schaaf’s book on the works of Fox Talbot<\/p><\/div>\n

Toronto<\/strong>. Photography was announced in January 1839 by two very different men as two very different processes, both based on the reaction of silver salts to light. And both were \u00a0successful because a means was discovered to make the resulting images permanent.<\/p>\n

The few weeks later announced process by Fox Talbot while of poorer resolution introduced the standard positive\/negative concept used throughout the glass plate and film era (Talbot’s process actually predated Daguerre’s but was kept private until Daguerre’s electrifying news).<\/p>\n

In issue 26-3, editor Bob Lansdale printed a number of book reviews in a lengthy column titled “The Christmas Book Shelf<\/em>“. In the case of Larry J Schaaf’s October 2000 book titled “The Photographic Art of William Henry Fox Talbot<\/em><\/a>“, Bob wrote the review himself, beginning, “When ever Larry J. Schaaf has written an article or made a public statement, I\u2019ve learned to listen intently to what he has to say. He is a thoroughly knowledgeable photohistorian, resident in Baltimore, Maryland, and a research Professor at the University of Glasgow, Scotland.<\/p>\n

“He has\u00a0written extensively on the early history of\u00a0photography and published several books\u00a0on William Henry Fox Talbot including\u00a0Out of the Shadows: Herschel, Talbot &\u00a0<\/i>the Invention of Photography<\/i>, and\u00a0Records of the Dawn of Photography:\u00a0<\/i>Talbot\u2019s Notebooks.<\/i><\/p>\n

“Rumours have praised his newest book long before it reached the market.\u00a0Well researched in content and beauty, it\u00a0has been worth the wait. Drawn from\u00a0public and private collections throughout\u00a0the world, 100 of Talbot\u2019s calotype\u00a0images, positives and negatives, have\u00a0been faithfully reproduced in the actual\u00a0size of the originals and in all the subtle\u00a0hues that comprised his early works.<\/p>\n

“They\u00a0range from Talbot’s Lilliputian pre-1839\u00a0negatives (made in “mousetrap” cameras)\u00a0through botanical photograms to mid-1840s calotypes that demonstrate a sure\u00a0command of the new art. Each plate is\u00a0discussed in detail, drawing on important\u00a0new research conducted by the author.<\/p>\n

“Many of the photographs are little known\u00a0and are reproduced for the first time in\u00a0this volume. Thus the book becomes an\u00a0important archive for those who may\u00a0never have the pleasure to witness firsthand these rare and fragile works.” …<\/p>\n

Bob’s review continues in issue 26-3. Members read it in the pdf file for that issue on the free members-only DVD\/stick. Joining is easy \u2013 just follow \u2018membership\u2019 above and at right. Any questions? Email them to member@phsc.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto. Photography was announced in January 1839 by two very different men as two very different processes, both based on the reaction of silver salts to light. And both were \u00a0successful because a means was discovered to make the resulting … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1944],"tags":[397,30,2713],"class_list":["post-33196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-book","tag-images","tag-processes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33196"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33201,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33196\/revisions\/33201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}