SARUM U3A

“Capturing the Light” was the title of Roger Watson’s talk. Curator of the Fox Talbot Museum and world authority on the origins and development of photography, he explained that photography was a combination of optics and chemistry as he guided us through its history.

A thousand years ago in Cairo al Haythaim produced an inverted image of minarets using the first pin-hole camera obscura. Translated into Latin his treatise led to experiments in optics. Chemists noticed the effect of light on chemicals. It was the Age of Enlightenment which saw a thirst for knowledge, and money and time for well-informed interested men to experiment. A member of the Lunar Society, Tom Wedgewood produced his “Night Albums”, transient images created on paper treated with silver nitrate.

The scene was set for a great rivalry. Two dissimilar men, Louis Daguerre of Paris, flamboyant, charismatic, showman, and entrepreneur; and Fox Talbot of Lacock , quiet gentleman and amateur scientist. Their quest, to create a lasting image. Both men succeeded using different methods. Daguerre achieved money and fame. Talbot respect amongst scholars of the Royal Institution. We delighted in viewing his world first - a tiny, grainy negative of the oriel window at Lacock.

It was left to Frederick Archer to combine their methods and so produce photography for all; lasting images of people and places. What a story; imagine a world without photography!

A lively question and answer session was followed by a display and sale of the Art for Pleasure Group.