Exhibition: Fox Talbot: Dawn of the Photograph

William Henry Fox Talbot was a pioneer of photography - a new and influential medium that changed the way people saw themselves and the world.

By drawing on one of the world’s most comprehensive and important collections of Talbot’s work, this exhibition tells the story of how photography was born and how Talbot’s invention of the negative-positive process formed the basis of photography around the world for over 150 years, immortalising him as the father of the medium.

This exhibition is a testament to Fox Talbot's magical and industrial visions for his invention, which range from the delicate capture of natural specimens to great ambitions for photography as means of mass production.

Fox Talbot's experiments are set in the context of the 19th century's new age of telegraphy and mechanisation, where time and space is compressed and fragmented. The exhibition also refers to his relationships with his contemporaries such as Herschel, Brewster, Babbage and Faraday.