Getty Museum

[Sharington's Tower at Lacock Abbey]

Date

probably 1840

Medium

Photogenic drawing negative, iodide fixed

Culture

British

Department

Photographs

Institution

Getty Museum

> In the *Pencil of Nature* (1844-46) William Henry Fox Talbot wrote that > > > > “the Author’s country seat in Wiltshire . . . is a religious structure of great antiquity, erected early in the thirteenth century, many parts of which are still remaining in excellent preservation. . . . The tower which occupies the South-eastern corner of the building is believed to be of Queen Elizabeth’s time, but the lower portion of it is much older, and coeval with the first foundation of the abbey. In my first account of ‘The Art of Photogenic Drawing,’ read to the Royal Society in January 1839, I mentioned this building as being the first ‘that was ever yet known to have drawn its own picture.’ It was in the summer of 1835 that these curious self-representations were first obtained. Their size was very small; indeed, they were but miniatures, though very distinct: and the shortest time of making them was nine or ten minutes.” > > > > > > This look at Lacock Abbey reminds us of the nature of the camera’s image. A lens naturally projects a circular picture matching its own shape, and it is only by convention that we usually trim off the edges to form a rectangle, thus discarding much of that the lens has seen. Here, the full field of view is recorded on a sheet of paper too large for this particular lens to cover completely. > > The modern visitor to Lacock (now a National Trust Village) can see most of the abbey exactly as Talbot saw it. Although the tower is closed to the public it still dominates the scene. > > Larry Schaaf, *William Henry Fox Talbot*, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2002), 38. ©2002 J. Paul Getty Trust.

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