Vist to the Fox Talbot in Lacock

Fox Talbot

On Tuesday 17th October 2017, I went to visit the home of Henry Fox Talbot. There, he took the earliest surviving photographic negative out of a small window in his home in 1835. The house and the grounds surrounding are very beautiful, constructed in 1232, it has been used as a location in many TV and films such as Harry Potter and Downton Abbey. As a landscape photographer, I found the scenes in and around the building very beautiful, especially with the blue sky that was present on the day.

During the day, I explored the grounds, the museum, the town nearby and took part in a virtual reality experience. As there were so many locations to explore, my photos varied in themes. Below are some my favourite I took with my digital camera.

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Some background information on - William Henry Fox Talbot

11th February 1800 – 17 September 1877

Talbot lived happily in his home in Lacock Abbey where he invented the first photographic process which eventually lead to the creation of the photolytic engraving process. Talbot drastically changed the way commercial photography. William Talbot is the most famous historic photographer there is. His work shaped the modern experience of photography.

One of his most notable creations was his improvements to the calotype by using different types of silver salt. Below are my experiments with this process. I used photographic paper and places objects on top and then covered it with a sheet of glass. I then places this outside for the sun to imprint the shapes onto the paper. The objects I used were, flowers, headphones, a key and a phone lens.

While I was there I took part in a vertical reality experience. I put on some goggles and a laptop on my backpack was able to walk around a room which was set up like when William Henry Fox Talbot has his first exhibition. I could pick up feel the items in the room, feel the warmth of the fire and even hear protestors outside. It was a really good experience and I am very glad I took part. It was very interesting to walk around a room like that full of some of the most famous images ever taken.