A "thoroughly enjoyable" account of the English scientist and the French artist, each toiling alone, who invented modern photography (The Wall Street Journal).
During the 1830s, in an atmosphere of intense scientific inquiry fostered by the industrial revolution, two quite different menâone in France, one in Englandâdeveloped their own dramatically different photographic processes in total ignorance of each other's work. These two lone geniusesâHenry Fox Talbot in the seclusion of his English country estate at Lacock Abbey and Louis Daguerre in the heart of post-revolutionary Parisâthrough diligence, disappointment, and sheer hard work overcame extraordinary odds to achieve the one thing man had for centuries been trying to doâto solve the ancient puzzle of how to capture the light and in so doing make nature "paint its own portrait."
With the creation of their two radically different processesâthe Daguerreotype and the Talbotypeâthese two giants of early photography changed the world and how we see it. Drawing on a wide range of original, contemporary sources and featuring plates in color, sepia, and black and white, many of them rare or previously unseen, Capturing the Light charts an extraordinary tale of genius, rivalry, and human resourcefulness in the quest to produce the world's first photograph.
"Energetically written and deftly paced . . . gripping popular history." âPublishers Weekly
Capturing the Light - Roger Watson & Helen Rappaport
A "thoroughly enjoyable" account of the English scientist and the French artist, each toiling alone, who invented modern photography (The Wall Street Journal).
During the 1830s, in an atmosphere of intense scientific inquiry fostered by the industrial revolution, two quite different menâone in France, one in Englandâdeveloped their own dramatically different photographic processes in total ignorance of each other's work. These two lone geniusesâHenry Fox Talbot in the seclusion of his English country estate at Lacock Abbey and Louis Daguerre in the heart of post-revolutionary Parisâthrough diligence, disappointment, and sheer hard work overcame extraordinary odds to achieve the one thing man had for centuries been trying to doâto solve the ancient puzzle of how to capture the light and in so doing make nature "paint its own portrait."
With the creation of their two radically different processesâthe Daguerreotype and the Talbotypeâthese two giants of early photography changed the world and how we see it. Drawing on a wide range of original, contemporary sources and featuring plates in color, sepia, and black and white, many of them rare or previously unseen, Capturing the Light charts an extraordinary tale of genius, rivalry, and human resourcefulness in the quest to produce the world's first photograph.
"Energetically written and deftly paced . . . gripping popular history." âPublishers Weekly