Inventing Photography

The book delves into the life and innovations of William Henry Fox Talbot, the English pioneer of photography, highlighting his early experiments in the 1830s and significant contributions throughout the 1840s and 1850s. Utilizing archival materials from the Bodleian Library, it features eighty full-page plates that showcase Talbot's diverse interests and travels. An illustrated introduction contextualizes his work within a modernizing Britain and his intellectual environment, emphasizing how competition with the daguerreotype spurred his continuous quest for photographic advancement.