Top of Sharington's Tower, Lacock Abbey, Taken from the Roof above the South Gallery by William Henry Fox Talbot

Top of Sharington's Tower, Lacock Abbey, Taken from the Roof above the South Gallery

1840

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Artwork details

Medium
photography, albumen-print
Dimensions
Image: 5 13/16 × 7 1/16 in. (14.7 × 17.9 cm), irregularly trimmed Sheet: 7 5/16 × 8 7/8 in. (18.6 × 22.6 cm), irregularly trimmed
Location
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Copyright
Public Domain

Tags

#photo of handprinted image#ink paper printed#landscape#photography#romanticism#albumen-print#building

About this artwork

William Henry Fox Talbot captured "Top of Sharington's Tower, Lacock Abbey, Taken from the Roof above the South Gallery" using a pioneering photographic process. Talbot, a British inventor and one of the key figures in the development of photography, created this work in a time when the medium was still in its infancy. The image offers us a glimpse into 19th-century England, through the lens of a man who was both a scientist and an artist. "I do not profess to have perfected an art," Talbot once remarked, "but to have commenced one, the limits of which it is not yet possible to foresee." This quote encapsulates the spirit of experimentation that drove Talbot. Consider how Talbot’s social position as a wealthy, educated man allowed him the resources to explore this new technology. The hazy, dreamlike quality of the photograph evokes a sense of nostalgia. It invites us to reflect on the passage of time and the ever-evolving relationship between technology, art, and society.

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