In today's NY Times...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/arts/design/17phot.html?th&emc=th

Fascinating. Thanks for that link. The origins of photography are so obscure. If it is earlier than Talbot I wonder how they managed to make the image permanent. My understanding is that the early experiments by Wedgwood faded quickly & that images didn't become permanent until Sir John Herschel invented fix. 'Burning With Desire' by Geoffrey Batchen is an excellent history of that era.

The origins of photography are so obscure. era.

Indeed. I am always fascinated by the history of technologies, and the possibility that they popped up long before we imagine, and simply disappeared because it wasn't the right time, or someone didn't realize what they had accomplished.

I've been reading Burning with Desire: The Conception of Photography by Geoffrey Batchen, which is quite good and covers all the proto-photographers mentioned in NY Times article. The book is heavily influenced by Foucault for those of you interested in theory.

I've been reading Burning with Desire: The Conception of Photography by Geoffrey Batchen, which is quite good and covers all the proto-photographers mentioned in NY Times article. The book is heavily influenced by Foucault for those of you interested in theory.
Yes, it's a sort of history of the various histories of photography. The thing I like about it is that he is prepared to leave a lot of questions open about the origins, whereas most history books tend to be pretty definite about who did what & when. I always like the story about the guy in Brazil who had a lot of the right ideas & techniques. I don't think he got written into the history books until the late C20.