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10 unusual facts about Henry Fox Talbot


Air-gap flash

William Henry Fox Talbot is said to have created the first spark-based flash photo, using a Leyden jar, the original form of the capacitor.

Architectural photography

Similarly, photographs taken by early photographer William Henry Fox Talbot were of architecture, including his photograph of a Latticed window in Lacock Abbey taken in 1835.

Christian Schad

This process had been first used, in the years 1834 and 1835, by William Henry Fox Talbot who made cameraless images, that is, prints made by placing objects onto photosensitive paper and then exposing the paper to sunlight.

Henry Fox Talbot

With Sir Henry Rawlinson and Dr Edward Hincks he shares the honour of having been one of the first decipherers of the cuneiform inscriptions of Nineveh.

Loch Katrine

In 1844, William Henry Fox Talbot took an early photograph of the lake, entitled Scenery of Loch Katrine.

Molly Springfield

A previous installation by Springfield, exhibited in 2006, was based on the life and writings of William Henry Fox Talbot, the polymath who invented negative-positive photography.

Penllergare

Inspired by Henry Fox Talbot who was first cousin to John's wife, Emma, Llewelyn became an enthusiastic and accomplished photographer.

St Cyriac's Church

In 1902, Sir Harold Brakspear remodelled the church in a way sympathetic to his friend and local resident, the photographic pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot.

Susan Fereday

Her doctoral thesis, Light Out of Darkness: the origin of photography in mystery and melancholy, explored occluded meanings in the early photographs of Nicéphore Niépce and William Henry Fox Talbot.

Talbot effect

The Talbot effect is a near-field diffraction effect first observed in 1836 by Henry Fox Talbot.