Image Could Be of Historic Importance in World of Photography
By Ryan • Mar 31st, 2008 • Category: News for Creatives (archives), PhotographyBy Ula Ilnytzky of the AP for AM New York:
“NEW YORK – A New York auction house is selling a primitive photograph that could be a much earlier work than originally believed. If so, it says, it would be one of the most important discoveries in the history of photography.
The work, “Leaf,” to be sold at Sotheby’s on April 7, is a photogenic drawing _ a cameraless process in which an object is placed on silver nitrate-coated paper or leather to form a negative image.
It had previously been attributed to William Henry Fox Talbot, considered the father of photography along with Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre. It was thought to have been made in 1839 at what is widely accepted as the dawn of photography.
But Sotheby’s says research by a leading photo expert suggests otherwise _ that several early photo experimenters could be the authors, including Thomas Wedgwood, James Watt and Humphry Davy, who worked in the medium decades earlier. If that theory is true, it means the photo could have been made as early as 1790. “
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