Photography Collection

Linnaeus Tripe, English (1822 - 1902), The Monster Gun of Tanjore, March - April 1858, albumen silver print , image: 11 5/16 x 15, framed: 24 x 28, Thomas Walther Collection

The first exhibition to explore photographs made from paper negatives—calotypes—in Great Britain in the 1840s and 1850s, Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840–1860, will be on view from February 3 through May 4, 2008, in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. in the West Building photography galleries. The exhibition features 120 calotypes, many of which have never before been exhibited or published in the United States, made by about forty artists. Included are works by such masters as the process' inventor, William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877), Roger Fenton (1819–1869), and David Octavius Hill (1802–1870) and Robert Adamson (1821–1848), as well as by dozens of previously unknown photographers. The calotype process introduced the ability to make multiple copies of a photograph, as compared to its initial competition, the one-of-a-kind daguerreotype.
"This exhibition entirely revises our understanding of the art of early photography," says Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. "Before now, history has told us that Talbot's process—the calotype—was rendered obsolete in 1851 when a sharper method of making negatives—collodion on glass—was invented. But this exhibition vividly and eloquently demonstrates that many people continued to use the calotype because they preferred its aesthetic qualities."
The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in association with the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. The National Gallery of Art is the second venue for this exhibition, which premiered at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, September 24 through December 31, 2007. The exhibition travels to the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, May 26 through September 14, 2008.

William Henry Fox Talbot, English (1800 - 1877), Wild Fennel, 1841 - 1842, salted paper print, image: 7 3/8 x 8 15/16, framed: 17 x 20

The exhibition is presented in four parts:

The Formative Years, 1839–1851 covers the early, experimental period just after Talbot made his process available to the world. During this time the use of the calotype was primarily confined to a small circle of people close to Talbot, as well as a few other devoted practitioners, mainly in Scotland. Among the photographs on view will be Talbot's stark Wild Fennel (1841–1842) and dreamlike Ugbrook Park (1842), and beautiful calotypes from Hill and Adamson featuring the Scottish countryside, such as Colinton Manse and Weir (late 1846).

The Calotype Finds Its Place reveals that the calotype flourished in Great Britain following the large display of photography at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. The process became popular with Victorian men and women of leisure, who had the freedom to take on photography as a hobby. Their desire to leave behind the complexities of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain is apparent in these images of rural life and landscapes, including Tree with Tangled Roots (1853) and the snowy Queen Street, Bristol (1853) by Hugh Owen (1808–1897).

Echoes of the Grand Tour presents photographs taken in France, Spain, Italy, and Greece by intrepid tourists who wanted to record their travels. These photographers made calotypes because it required less cumbersome equipment than other processes. On view are calotypes of historic sites, including Calvert Richard Jones' (1802–1877) images of ruins, House of Sallust, Vesuvius behind, Pompeii (spring 1846), Alfred Backhouse's (1810–1857) Pots and Pans at Nice (1855), and a broad view of Carrera de San Jerónimo, Madrid (1853) by Charles Clifford (1819–1863).

Under an Indian Sky offers images of the exotic 19th-century British colonies of India and Burma. In their time, calotypes such as the stark Children's Graves, India (1848) by Alfred Huish (b. 1811– unknown), and John Murray's (1809–1898) panoramic The Taj Mahal from the Gateway (January–March 1864) brought the first photographic scenes from the far reaches of the British Empire to the West.