Then and now of the wet process
with fine art photography

1841: Englishman Fox Talbot introduced a photographic processing system, the calotype process, which involved a paper that had been sensitised to light by a coating of silver iodide. A negative image was produced on the exposed light-sensitive paper by bathing it in a solution of gallic acid.

Today: Essentially similar techniques are still used today by discerning professional fine art photographers, although there are now only four manufacturers in the world still producing silver gelatin fibre based photographic paper.

The real creative challenge of working in black & white lies not only in shooting the picture but in producing a fine print. With its precise control of tone and composition, the successful print mirrors or even enhances the photographers original visualisation of the subject. Each print of the series is individually produced, so in effect is an original with subtle differences.

Fine art black & white photography is being reborn and becoming an important addition to art collectors' portfolios. The current resurgence of interest has lead to more and more photographers rediscovering film camera photography, and more and more galleries investing in it. But experienced collectors demand only prints produced on fibre based photographic paper printed from negatives as seen in this collection.

Lacock Abbey, Fox Talbot's home in Wiltshire, England, is now a photographic museum and his displayed original photographs are as brilliant today as they were 167 years ago, clear evidence of the archival permanence this technique holds.