Insect Wings (1840) by William Fox Talbot, a botanist and photographic inventor, was a mystical work of scientific art which displays a quality like no other. Further research into Talbot’s work revealed that Talbot was particularly attracted to the mechanical exactness in the representation of nature that photography offered because he was not skilled in the documentation from the artist’s hand.[1] Talbot’s Photogenic Drawing Negative (1838-39) (Figure 2) embodies overwhelming qualities of delicately refined organic vines of lines that twist and curve of which are complemented by the intense burly blocks of shapes that are the leaves. The composition of this scientific photograph is asymmetrically balanced between the heavy visual weight of the large leaves and the complex visual weight of the thin varying vines. Talbot’s interest in wanting to see more through the magnification offered by scientific lab processes drew him closer to using photography as a means of delineating and diagramming the dynamic quality of nature. In obscuring the direct contribution of the artist’s hand and allowing the photograph to create itself, the scientific artwork’s conceptual indeterminacy materializes.[2] Formally, the artwork is not physically drawn or painted by Talbot, and yet there are elements, like the composition, that Talbot contributes to the work. “Talbot’s botanical images function as temporal diagrams that unfold through variation and expansion.”[3] Talbot’s Branch of Leaves of Mercuriàlis pérennis (1839) (Figure 3) gives the illusion of being symmetrically balanced – the stem is centered with one leaf at the top and three leaves on either side of the stem, with all the leaves appearing to be roughly the same size. However, varying levels of translucency in the luminosity of the image as well as the irregular values of a mixture of 1part alizarin crimson hue to two parts burnt umber create asymmetrical disruptions within the composition of the botanical image. The repetitive nature of the leaves create a visual rhythm emphasized by the opaque thin leaf shapes in the overlap of the individual leaves. This play with rhythmic luminosity and irregular values are components of this work of art by Talbot which possess and progress the dynamic diagram of nature. [1] Robert Harbison, “Decoding the Cipher of Reality: Fox Talbot in His Time,” 1991, 2. https://www-jstor-org.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/stable/24472403 [2] Vered Maimon, “On the Singularity of Early Photography: William Henry Fox Talbot’s Botanical Images,” 2011, 960. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8365.2011.00852.x. [3] Ibid., 971. Bibliography
Harbison, Robert. “Decoding the Cipher of Reality: Fox Talbot in His Time.” Aperture (San Francisco, Calif.), no. 125. 1991. 2–8. https://www-jstor-org.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/stable/24472403 Maimon, Vered. “On the Singularity of Early Photography: William Henry Fox Talbot’s Botanical Images.” Art History 34 (5). 2011. 958–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8365.2011.00852.x. |
About this PageThis page consists of analyses, interpretations, and translations for various artists, artworks, and art movements from my perspective. Explore the Archives for more. AuthorTessa Barretto Archives
September 2020
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