Transformer, Washington, DC
October 28-December 2, 2006

William Henry Fox Talbot's frustration with his inability to capture nature with a pencil eventually led him to develop what he called "the art of photogenic drawing." He invented the photographic negative from which positive prints could be made, thus allowing for the mass reproduction of images. He chronicled these discoveries in "The Pencil of Nature" (1844), the world's first photographically-illustrated book.

In "Gentle Reader" I drew on Talbot's life and work to create a dialogue between past and present. The result was a mix of conceptual drawing, experimental photography, and historical homage. The project included large drawings based on the introduction to "The Pencil of Nature," as well as smaller drawings of photocopies of secondary sources discussing Talbot's photographic discoveries. In addition to these drawings, I presented the results of my own experiments with calotype or Talbotype photography: sepia-toned sunprints of cutouts from "The Pencil of Nature" and Talbot's personal notebooks. I also designed a set of letterpress-printed bookmarks that viewers were invited to take home.

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