The Forms of Nameless Things (Hardcover)

Geoffrey Batchen

ISBN 10: 1851245936 / ISBN 13: 9781851245932

Published by Bodleian Library, 2022

About this Item

Hardcover. William Henry Fox Talbot, the English inventor of photography, created around 15,000 photographs in the nineteenth century, most of them attempts to produce compelling scientific documents or pictorial records of the world around him. However, among those that have survived are also prints in which an image has been obscured, obliterated or simply failed to register. Borrowing its intriguing title from a poem written by Talbot, this book features twenty-four of these prints, his most experimental photographs. Originally intended as test prints or creative exercises, all that remains on these shaped pieces of photographic paper are chemical stains or imprinted patterns or shapes. Offered to the reader as enigmatic physical artefacts, these failed or ruined photographs are here reanimated as objects of beauty, mystery and promise, as artworks that speak of photography's most fundamental attributes and potentials.An accompanying essay illustrated with comparative images places these photographs in a broad historical context leading up to the present, revealing what relevance Talbot's experiments have to contemporary concepts of the art of photography. This book features 24 of William Henry Fox Talbot's experimental prints. Offered to the reader as enigmatic physical artefacts, an accompanying essay illustrated with comparative images places these photographs in a broad historical context, revealing what relevance Talbot's experiments have to contemporary concepts of the art of photography. Shipping may be from our Sydney, NSW warehouse or from our UK or US warehouse, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781851245932

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Forms of Nameless Things (Hardcover)
• Publisher: Bodleian Library
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1851245936
• ISBN 13: 9781851245932
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

This collection features twenty-four of Fox Talbot’s most experimental photographs.
 
William Henry Fox Talbot, the English inventor of photography, created around 15,000 photographs in the nineteenth century, most of them attempts to produce compelling scientific documents or pictorial records of the world around him. However, among his surviving works are also prints in which an image has been obscured, obliterated, or simply failed to register. All that remains on these pieces of photographic paper are chemical stains or imprinted patterns or shapes.

Borrowing its intriguing title from a poem written by Talbot, this book features twenty-four of these prints, originally intended as test prints or creative exercises. Offered to the reader as enigmatic physical artifacts, these failed or ruined photographs are here reanimated as objects of beauty, mystery, and promise, as artworks that speak of photography’s most fundamental attributes and potentials.

An accompanying essay places these photographs in a broad historical context, revealing what relevance they have to the contemporary art of photography.

About the Author

Geoffrey Batchen is professor of the history of art at the University of Oxford.