Camera Obscura 1840

This is a photograph made by William Henry Fox Talbot using a camera obscura. Look closely and you can appreciate the physical process at play. Light was captured on a chemically treated paper, a radical departure from traditional drawing, painting or sculpture. Talbot was part of a wave of 19th-century inventors who were not just artists but also scientists, seeking to capture the world through technological means. What’s striking is the directness of the process. The light-sensitive paper records an impression made directly by rays of light. It's a mechanical process, but one that produces a strangely ethereal result. Think about the implications of this new technology. Photography democratized image-making, making it more accessible and less dependent on the skilled hand of an artist. This had profound effects on the art world, and our culture more generally. It blurred the lines between art and craft and opened up new possibilities for creative expression.