The exhibition featured works from brilliant photographers throughout history. The photographs were selected from each decade from the 1840s onwards. It was amazing to see William Henry Fox Talbot's photographs that were taken in 1843. These photographers looked very old and had faded to a sepia tone. Talbot used salted paper to produce his images. The subject matter of the early works (1800s/early 1900s) seemed to be portraits and landscapes. These periods included works by Henry Le Secq, Thomas Annan and Edward Steichen. Ironically, I found myself drawn to the smaller photographs by Talbot and Ansel Adams, rather then the recent digital photographs which were printed at a large scale and were quite bright in colour. Adams and Stiechen's landscapes were quite dark and eerie. The strong contrasts between light and dark areas produced amazing images. I particularly liked Steichen's Moonrise (1901) which featured a lake with the moon light sillhouetting tall, thin trees in the distances. The image was very dark, black and white, and rather grainy. The scene appeared calm and silent, and I imagined what it would be like to stand at the edge of the water.
The exhibition allowed me to view a timeline of photography, exploring different mediums and subject matters used throughout the last two centuries.
Moonrise 1901
Moonrise 1901 Edward Steichen
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