Displaying items by tag: william henry fox talbot

After two years of fundraising, Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries have finally secured the £2.25 million (approx. $3.6 million) necessary to buy the personal archive of early photography pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot. Although Daguerre is often credited with the invention of photography, Fox Talbot’s book “Pencil of Nature” was an early development for paper-based processes and the first photographically-illustrated book. The archive includes objects photographed in the book, documents relating to both his work and his personal life, and many other items. The Bodleian Libraries have several plans in the works for the archive including a 2017 exhibition, a catalogue raisonné of his work, and an online archive for scholarly research.

Treasures of the Alfred Stieglitz Center: Photographs from the Permanent Collection opened on December 22 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Drawing from the institution’s impressive permanent collection, the exhibition features rarely seen works by William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), Gustave Le Gray (1820-1884), and Charles Aubry (1803-1883). The show includes a selection of modern and contemporary works including pieces by Robert Frank (b. 1954) and Diane Arbus (1923-1971), visually tracing the history of photography and its evolution as a medium. There are also a number of recent acquisitions on view.

The core of the exhibition is a collection of works by Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946), one of the foremost figures in twentieth-century American art, and his protégé, Dorothy Norman (1905-1997). The featured works were created during the years of their creative exchange, which spanned from 1929 until Stieglitz’s death in 1946. As a result of her close relationship with Stieglitz, Norman helped found the Alfred Stieglitz Center at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1968 when she donated her vast art collection to the institution.

Treasures of the Alfred Stieglitz Center will be on view through April 7, 2013.