Henry Fox Talbot Exhibit at Hans P. Kraus Gallery

This article was originally published on my Typepad blog on October 31, 2012

I had not previously visited the Hans P. Kraus Gallery on Park Avenue. When I went there this past Friday, Photo Expo was still continuing at the Javits Center and I expected the gallery to be packed with photographers eager to see the original work of Henry Fox Talbot. After all, academic quibbles aside, these represent the very first photographic negatives and prints ever made. To my astonishment, I was the only person present during the half hour I spent there. 

This was the experience every exhibit should create and none ever do. As I moved about the small gallery space, I was able to take my time and to give each piece the attention it deserved. It was even possible to imagine myself a nineteenth century guest at Lacock Abbey and to realize how startling these ancient faded images must have appeared to those who had never before seen a photograph. Most of the negatives and prints on display were familiar to those who have studied the origins of photography. There were views of Lacock Abbey itself as well as landscapes and photograms of leaves and other objects. I felt sympathy for the long dead figures in some of these photos who had been forced by the slowness of the calotype process to hold a stiff pose for an uncomfortable length of time. One great advantage for any darkroom enthusiast was that several negatives were paired with the "salt prints" which had been made from them.

One component rarely mentioned in a review of any art exhibit is the quality of the catalog which accompanies it. It can be extremely difficult to appreciate art when one is compelled at the same time to wade through pages of scholarly text that is almost incomprehensible to the layman. At this exhibit, the level of writing was excellent and the illustrations were also of the highest quality . The text was by Larry Schaaf who, together with the late Helmut Gernsheim, must be considered the leading authority on early photographic processes and who writes with a facility equal to his knowledge. I already own Schaaf's books Out of the Shadows and The Photographic Art of William Henry Fox Talbot and have found both to be invaluable resources for the study of the first years of British photography.