CURRENTLY SOLD OUT

Capturing the Light: The birth of photography by Roger Watson, Helen Rappaport (Paperback, 2014)

Capturing the Light starts with a tiny scrap of purple-tinged paper, 176 years old and about the size of a postage stamp. On it you can just make out a tiny, ghostly image of a gothic window, an image so small and perfect that it `might be supposed to be the work of some Lilliputian artist': the world's first photographic negative. This captivating book traces the lives of two very different men in the 1830s, both racing to be the first to solve one of the world's oldest problems: how to capture an image and keep it for ever. On the one hand there is Henry Fox Talbot: a quiet, solitary gentleman-amateur tinkering away on his farm in the English countryside. On the other Louis Daguerre, a flamboyant, charismatic French showman in search of fame and fortune. Only one question remains: who will get there first?

Place of Publication
London
Spine
21mm
Author Biography
Roger Watson is a world authority on the early history of photography. He is currently the Curator of the Fox Talbot Museum at Lacock Abbey and an occasional lecturer at DeMontfort University in Leicester. Helen Rappaport is a historian with a specialism in the nineteenth century and revolutionary Russia. She is the author of eight published books, including Ekaterinburg: The Last Days of the Romanovs and Magnificent Obsession: Victoria, Albert and the Death that Changed the Monarchy.
Date of Publication
27/03/2014
Edition Statement
Main Market Ed.
Country of Publication
United Kingdom

Best Selling in Books

Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Best Selling in Books

Current slide {CURRENT_SLIDE} of {TOTAL_SLIDES}- Save on Books