The Pencil of Nature | Fox Talbot

A book from 1844 in which Talbot discusses his research and results with the process of callotype. The texts that accompany each of the 24 prints, glued one by one by hand, are not long, but they are surprisingly profound. For example, he goes so far as to consider that there is an invisible light that goes beyond violet and that it would be possible to photograph where human eyes would see total darkness. There are considerations about the Daguerreotype and also about how he arrived at his calotype, and he also discusses the characteristics of the many uses he envisioned for photography in the future and its developments.

In short, even without considering the historical importance of the publication, it is a very instructive and enjoyable read. This Gutenberg edition is very well looked after. It has the images but the text is not a direct reproduction of the original book, it is edited in .pdf and is therefore very comfortable to read. Link: The pencil of Nature