Digital BW, The Print

Talbot did have work earlier than 1839. If memory serves me, I saw one 
of the Lacock Abbery window shots done in 1835 (date might be muddled) 
once held by Sean Thackrey in San Francisco. But, no, UofTX in Austin 
does have the Niepce Heliograph of his backyard in Chalon-sur-Saone. 
this, actually, is likely the first true photograph as we know it. 
However, the term, meaning 'light-writing' was used effectively by 
Niepce in the 1820's. He first experimented around 1816 or so and 
produced line drawings using, I think, acid to etch the plate. As we 
all know, he was conjoined with Daguerre for Daguerre was on the path 
also. Some believe, as I understand it, that w/out Niepce, Daguerre 
would not have arrived at his method.
Jack Fulton

On Apr 25, 2005, at 2:32 PM, 
DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com wrote:

> Subject: RE: Well, What Do You Know...
>
> That's interesting, because the University of Texas in Austin has the 
> first
> claimed photograph, by Talbot. From what I have read, Talbot created 
> the
> first photograph that could be fixed, and that earlier photographs were
> taken but quickly faded away.
>
> Andy
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of 
> Clayton
> Jones
> Sent: Monday, April 25, 2005 2:17 PM
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Digital BW] Well, What Do You Know...
>
>
>
> The world's oldest known photograph, which just sold for $392,000, is 
> an ink
> on paper print (made from a plate created with a light sensitive 
> process).
> We are not so far from True Vine.
>
>    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1885093.stm
>
> Interesting article.  The subject of this photograph is an etching.
> So our earliest known photograph was of another work of art.  Perhaps 
> he was
> trying to find a way to reproduce original works, and at that time 
> didn't
> think of it as a way to create original works...just speculation.
>
>
> Regards,
> Clayton


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I saw that photograph about 10 years ago in Austin. It is part of the Gernsheim 
collection of 19th century photography. The biggest in the world I belive. It 
was the roof top photograph by Niepce. It was some kind of emulsion 
suspended in a tar base. It is generally considered the first photograph ( 
Newhall ). When I looked at it is was almost gone then. You could only see it 
by looking at an angle to the side. But it was very spooky just seeing it. It kind 
of make me feel strange all day. The astronomer SIr John Hershell did 
photographs before this one but they all faded. He later came up with a fixing 
technique using Hypo salts. He was pissed that all his best pics faded.

In a related note. I just did a job where I scanned  on a flatbed scanner  10 
8x10 paper negatives done on a view camera. Then I cleaned them up and 
printed on William Turner with Ultrachrome and QTR for a warm neutral hue. 
They were very beautiful and glowed like all paper negative prints did, only I 
was able to control the sharpness in Photoshop and dodge a lot more than 
Talbot could. So there  Henry Fox Talbot, take that you old Englishman.

John