On the Singularity of Early Photography: William Henry Fox Talbot’s Botanical Images

This essay is concerned with the first decade of photography and the efforts of William Henry Fox Talbot to conceptualize paper photography. It examines the epistemological status of the early photograph by analysing the specific scientific, philosophical, and aesthetic historical conditions within which the conception of photography took place. It argues that the early photograph was not conceived to be identical to the image of the camera obscura because the two image types belong to different regimes of knowledge. Thus the shift from ‘the artist’s hand’ to ‘nature’s pencil’ did not point to increased levels of resemblance or accuracy, but to time as the new condition of knowledge in the early nineteenth century. By pointing to the historical specificity of early photography, this essay reconsiders the prevalent use of terms such as ‘index’ and ‘simulacrum’ in postmodern theories of photography. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.