This is the first exhibition in Britain devoted to salted paper prints, one of the earliest forms of photography. A uniquely British invention, unveiled by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1839, salt prints spread across the globe, creating a new visual language of the modern moment.
This revolutionary technique transformed subjects from still lifes, portraits, landscapes and scenes of daily life into images with their own specific aesthetic: a soft, luxurious effect particular to this photographic process.
The few salt prints that survive are seldom seen due to their fragility, and so this exhibition, a collaboration with the Wilson Centre for Photography, is a singular opportunity to see the rarest and best early photographs of this type in the world.
Curated by Carol Jacobi, Curator of British Art 1850–1915, Simon Baker, Curator, Photography International Art, Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, Assistant Curator 1850-1915 and Hannah Lyons, Assistant Curator 1850–1915.
Tate Britain
Salt and Silver: Early Photography 1840 – 1860
25 February – 7 June 2015
Adult £12.00 (without donation £10.90)
Concession £10.50 (without donation £9.50)
Tate Britain
Millbank
London SW1P 4RG
United Kingdom
Website: www.tate.org.uk
D. O. Hill and Robert Adamson, Newhaven fishermen, circa 1845 © Wilson Centre for Photography
Jean-Baptiste Frénet, Horse and Groom, 1855 © Wilson Centre for Photography
Jean-Baptiste Frénet, Women and girls with a doll, circa 1855 © Wilson Centre for Photography
John Wheeley Gough Gutch Abbey Ruins, circa 1858 © Wilson Centre for Photography
Roger Fenton, Cantiniére, 1855 © Wilson Centre for Photography
Roger Fenton, Captain Mottram Andrews, 28th Regiment (1st Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot, 1855 © Wilson Centre for Photography
William Henry Fox Talbot, Plaster Bust of Patroclus, before February 1846 © Wilson Centre for Photography
William Henry Fox Talbot, Study of China, 1844 © Wilson Centre for Photography
