Capturing the Light
A Story of Genius, Rivalry and the Birth of Photography
Published on 8. February 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-1-5098-9203-7 (ISBN)
Description
Capturing the Light starts with a tiny scrap of purple-tinged paper, 176 years old and about the size of a postage stamp. On it you can just make out a tiny, ghostly image of a gothic window, an image so small and perfect that it 'might be supposed to be the work of some Lilliputian artist': the world's first photographic negative.
This captivating book traces the lives of two very different men in the 1830s, both racing to be the first to solve one of the world's oldest problems: how to capture an image and keep it for ever. On the one hand there is Henry Fox Talbot: a quiet, solitary gentleman-amateur tinkering away on his farm in the English countryside. On the other Louis Daguerre, a flamboyant, charismatic French showman in search of fame and fortune.
Only one question remains: who will get there first?
This captivating book traces the lives of two very different men in the 1830s, both racing to be the first to solve one of the world's oldest problems: how to capture an image and keep it for ever. On the one hand there is Henry Fox Talbot: a quiet, solitary gentleman-amateur tinkering away on his farm in the English countryside. On the other Louis Daguerre, a flamboyant, charismatic French showman in search of fame and fortune.
Only one question remains: who will get there first?
Reviews / Votes
'The history of photography told as a fierce race between two rivals . . . Reads like a scientific thriller' Observer'Cheerfully readable ... the authors' enthusiasm for those pioneering days of photography, the drama and the sense of something fabulous just over the horizon, is catching.' Sunday Telegraph
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Pan Macmillan
Target group
Interest Age: From 18 years
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
577 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5098-9203-7 (9781509892037)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Roger Watson | Helen Rappaport
Capturing the Light
A Story of Genius, Rivalry and the Birth of Photography
E-Book
04/2013
Picador
€13.49
Available for download
Persons
Roger Watson is a world authority on the early history of photography. He is currently the Curator of the Fox Talbot Museum at Lacock Abbey and an occasional lecturer at DeMontfort University in Leicester.
Helen Rappaport is a historian with a specialism in the nineteenth century and revolutionary Russia. She is the author of eight published books, including Ekaterinburg: The Last Days of the Romanovs and Magnificent Obsession: Victoria, Albert and the Death that Changed the Monarchy.
Helen Rappaport is a historian with a specialism in the nineteenth century and revolutionary Russia. She is the author of eight published books, including Ekaterinburg: The Last Days of the Romanovs and Magnificent Obsession: Victoria, Albert and the Death that Changed the Monarchy.
Content
Section - i: List of Illustrations Section - ii: Prologue: My First Daguerreotype Chapter - 1: The Locked Treasure Room Chapter - 2: Shadowgrams Chapter - 3: The Box of Wonders Chapter - 4: An Inheritance Chapter - 5: The Panorama Chapter - 6: An Innate Love of Knowledge Chapter - 7: More Beautiful than Nature Chapter - 8: Lacock Abbey Chapter - 9: Seeking the Impossible Chapter - 10: The Heliograph Chapter - 11: The Melancholy Artist Chapter - 12: Fixing the Image Chapter - 13: The Latticed Window, August 1835 Chapter - 14: The Magic Cabinet Chapter - 15: The Most Wonderful Discovery Ever Made Chapter - 16: From Today, Painting is Dead Chapter - 17: Photogenic Drawing Chapter - 18: The Academie des Sciences, August 1839 Chapter - 19: Daguerreotypomania Chapter - 20: Portraiture Chapter - 21: The Pencil of Nature Chapter - 22: The Monopoly of the Sunshine Chapter - 23: The Great Exhibition of 1851 Chapter - 24: The Reluctant Inventor Chapter - 25: Art or Science? Chapter - 26: The Mute Testimony of the Picture Chapter - 27: The Eye of History Section - iii: Epilogue: Everyman's Art Acknowledgements - iv: Acknowledgements Section - v: Notes Section - vi: Bibliography Index - vii: Index