by Roger Watson
First published 2013
Two men worked separately during the 1830s to solve an ancient problem: how to make light create permanent images. Henry Fox Talbot conducted experiments at his English estate, Lacock Abbey, while Louis Daguerre pursued his research in Paris. Neither knew about the other's efforts. The Industrial Revolution had sparked intense scientific curiosity, and both men threw themselves into the challenge with determination. Through countless failures and small breakthroughs, they developed completely different photographic methods. Talbot created the Talbotype process, while Daguerre perfected the Daguerreotype. Watson draws from original documents and contemporary accounts to tell this story of parallel invention. The book includes rare photographs in color, sepia, and black and white, many never published before. This dual biography reveals how two brilliant individuals changed human perception forever by capturing light itself.
Genres: biography, 20th-century, 19th-century, art-history, academic, history-of-science
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: dual-biography
Setting: Lacock Abbey, Paris
Period: 1830s
320 pages · Unknown Binding · St. Martin's Press