Getty Museum
The Sands of Time
Creator
Thomas Richard WilliamsPhotographer · 1824–1871
All works by this person →Little is known about the life of Thomas Richard Williams. The first professional record of him comes from 1850, when he set up a photographic business in London. In 1854, while working for Philip Henry Delamotte, Williams made his celebrated stereograph daguerreotypes of the Crystal Palace. Some scholars consider Williams to be one of the first photographers to record events as they happened, mak
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1850–1852
- Medium
- Stereo-daguerreotype
- Culture
- English
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
This daguerreotype stereograph image by Thomas Richard Williams is a still life *memento mori* composition. An assemblage of a human skull, an hourglass with the sand running out, an extended compass, and a book abandoned mid-read with eyeglasses placed upside down on the page, the image evokes the temporary nature of mortal life and the inevitability of death. The objects also refer to intellectual pursuits and to the inevitable triumph of the soul over the mind.
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