Francesca Strobino

We develop original programming fulfilling our mandate to advance the knowledge of and interest in the histories of photography. I coordinate both our in-person and online guest lectures by Canadian and International Academics, Artists, Collectors, Conservators, Curators, Educators, Practitioners, Researchers, and Scholars.The program runs on the third Wednesday of the month, ist 100% Free, and reservations may be made through our eventbrite pages.

Photographic Historical Society of Canada

Natural objects and the making of Talbot’s photographic engraving process (1852)

This talk reflects on the use of natural objects in Talbot’s early photographic and photomechanical practice. Thanks to their material qualities (flatness, neat pattern), lace and botanical specimens were among the first subjects that Talbot used to test in his contact print experiments (1835-1839), becoming a powerful statement of photographic realism. The verisimilitude of these specimens was so striking that even Queen Victoria was mesmerized by their perfection. During the 1850s, the tacit knowledge gained through years of handling and using fabrics and botanical objects resurfaced in a new shape. While working on his first photomechanical process, Talbot used a gauze grid pattern as a screen, a tool to break up complex photographic halftones in smaller parts and applied it to reproduce more complex subjects, such as botanical prints. He would call this brand-new technology the photographic veil and patent it with the photographic engraving process in 1852.By using botanical and lace prints, I discuss how Talbot tried to give a solution to the issue of reproducing realistic ink images through contact printing of ‘natural’ objects. The underpinning argument of my research, drawn from material culture studies, is that materials have an important agency in the development of new printing processes, able to tell a different story to the written account we conventionally follow regarding the development of early photomechanical processes. The tacit knowledge resulting from hands-on experience in using fabrics and botanical specimens is a key element to investigate how and through what Talbot’s view of photography had been moulded and developed.

Ms. Strobino investigates the historical contexts of photography’s invention as a printing technology within early nineteenth-century scientific discourse. Utilizing the collection of William Henry Fox Talbot’s experiments in the National Science and Media Museum, Bradford, the investigation re-evaluates Talbot’s experiments in photomechanical printing as an essential chapter in photographic history.

Francesca Strobino is an AHRC CDP PhD student at De Montfort University and National Science and Media Museum, Bradford, investigating Talbot’s experiments in photomechanical printing. During her studies (BA in Cultural Heritage, University of Urbino, 2012; MA in Art History, University of Florence, 2016; MA in Photographic History, DMU, 2018) she worked in the organization of the Contemporary Photography Festival SIFEST (2015-2017) and took part in inventory and digitization projects at the Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa, 2015) and the Fotosammlung Ruth und Peter Herzog (Basel, 2018-19). Lately, she has been involved in the project "Photography in Tuscany: stories of a cultural heritage" in collaboration with Regione Toscana and the University of Florence. Her main research interests involve history of photomechanical processes, printing history, history of scientific illustration, and popularisation of scientific knowledge.

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Francesca Strobino

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Francesca Strobino

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