"A Scene in York" - York Minster from Lop Lane 28 - 1845

William Henry Fox Talbot made this salted paper print of "A Scene in York" sometime in the 1840s. It depicts York Minster from Lop Lane. Photography was new, but it was immediately bound up with existing social structures. Here, we see that photography is being used to document established institutions, like the Church. By positioning the viewer on a street and looking up at the Minster, Talbot represents it as part of the fabric of everyday life. Yet, the architecture and the photographic process itself suggests a certain social hierarchy. What could be more modern than photography in the 1840s? What could be more traditional than a Medieval cathedral? Historians can look at Talbot's personal papers, the records of York Minster, and publications about photography from the period to understand this image better. The meaning of art is always contingent on its historical context.