Villa Melzi - Free Paper Example

Introduction

The Villa Melzi drawing was done and titled by William Henry Fox Talbot on 5th October, 1833. It is regarded to be the most important drawing in the history of photography. It was done as he was trying to draw the landscape from Villa Melzi grounds using a camera lucida (a device of artists used to focus a view onto paper). The most interesting fact about the Villa Melzi drawing is not the drawing itself but the impact it had not only on Talbot but also, and most especially, on photography.

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Tablot was quite intelligent, he grew in wisdom and made it certain to know much about the skills that came his way throughout his life. He had extensive knowledge on scientific skills, political skills, mathematical subjects and so many other skills. One interesting and unique fact about Henry Talbot was that despite the fact that he was so skilled and gifted and he was also known to be knowledgeable about so many things, he could not draw. Many would define this as a weakness and Tablot himself was frustrated by it, yet it was later realized to be the source of the invention of the art of photography.

On his extended continental tour to the Italian Lake Como village of Belagio with his wife and his sister together with other relatives, he realized that amongst his family members, he was the only one who could not draw. Despite the fact that he was so skilled, one unique thing about Talbot was his inability to draw. Drawing seemed essential during his period since photography had not yet been invented. Mobile camera phones were still inexistent so in order to keep memories of places, photos, selfies, the only means available was through drawing.

Realization

The realization challenged him to lean more towards science and technology making his visual efforts more respectable. His 1844,"The Pencil of Nature" introductory comment briefly conveys the art and invention of 1833," One of the first days of the month of October 1833, I was amusing myself on the lovely shores of the Lake of Como , in Italy, taking sketches with Wollaston's camera lucida...." (Maimon, 2008).He describes on his narrative how the camera lucida operates. It was invented by William Hyde Wollaston. Henry Talbot says it is" a room of light" used in open air. The images of what is intended to be drawn appear on paper made possible by how the camera lucida has been created. It possesses a prism placed at the top of a brass tube which is extendable. In order to record or make a copy of an object, one needed to follow the lines.

Talbot tried out a few drawings using camera lucida such as an outline of a leaf and a rudimentary view of the tiny village of Bellagio, marching from the lake up a steep hillside. The famous drawing of the boat landing for Villa Melzi titled by Talbot on 5th October 1833 encouraged Henry into realizing his new invention. The attempts he made led him to realize various limitations of the camera lucida. He says in The Pencil of Nature" After various fruitless attempts, I laid aside the instrument and came to the conclusion that its use required a previous knowledge of drawing which unfortunately, I did not possess." (Talbot & Wiegand, 1844).

Operating a camera lucida required art and skill; it involved the reduction of a colorful three-dimensional world into monochromatic lines on a flat surface. Tablot had no clue and idea of how it was supposed to be done. The sketch he made of Villa Melzi looked weird due to his lack of skill of drawing, “…this led me to reflect on the inimitable beauty of the pictures of nature's painting which the glass lenses of the camera throws upon the paper in its focus; fairy pictures, creations of a moment and destined as rapidly to fade away. It was during these thoughts that the idea occurred to me how charming it would be if it were possible to cause these natural images to imprint themselves durably and remain fixed upon paper."

Ideas

By borrowing and applying ideas from an older invention, camera obscura,"room of darkness", he realized a basic principle that gave birth to his invention of photography, “the picture, divested of the ideas which accompany it, and considered only in its ultimate nature is but a succession or variety of stronger lights thrown upon one part of the paper, and of deeper shadows upon another. Now light, where it exists can exert an action, and, in certain circumstances does exert one sufficient to cause changes in material bodies. Suppose then such an action could be exerted on the paper; and suppose the paper could be visibly changed by it. In that case, surely some effect must result having a general resemblance to the cause which produced it: so that the variegated sense of light and shade might leave its image or impression behind, stronger or weaker on different parts of the paper according to the strength or the weaknesses of the light which acted on there."

Talbot returned to England and began to exploit his imaginations and put them to work in the spring of 1834.His experiments began with application of light sensitive Silver salts on a common drawing paper. By placing various objects like lace on a light sensitive paper and displaying them directly to sunlight, the solar energy produces by the sun reduced the salts of silver to metallic particles; consequently, an image was created (Kemp, 1997).

Conclusion

However, the images produced were temporary as they were literally destroyed by the light that was requires to view them. This did not slow him down; it instead pushed him further to be more observant and keen. Using a two-step process to sensitize his papers, he discovered a scientific and chemical skill that would later help counter this disadvantage. By analyzing the properties of silver salts, for instance; silver nitrate was readily soluble in water but slightly light sensitive whereas, silver chloride was discriminatingly light sensitive but soluble in water, he came up with an experiment that uses these properties to his advantage. He discovered a way to stabilize the images he created and within a period of two years, he created and made his first two photographs.

References

Kemp, M. (1997). Talbot and the picturesque view: Henry, Caroline and Constance. History of photography, 21(4), 270-282.Maimon, V. (2008). Displaced ‘Origins’: William Henry Fox Talbot's The Pencil of Nature. History of Photography, 32(4), 314-325.

Talbot, H. F., & Wiegand, W. (1844). The pencil of nature, der Zeichenstift der Natur. Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans.