Yesterday I was reading a fascinating article about a mysterious photogenic drawing in the New York Times. All this time, this photogenic drawing of a leaf was assumed to have been created by William Fox Talbot, one of the discoverers of photography. But now that this image of a leaf has been put up for sale, no one can say for certain that William Fox Talbot made it. If he didn't make it, that may mean it's a lot older than originally thought. Way older.
“The Leaf,” originally thought to have been made around 1839 or later, has become the talk of the photo-historical world. The speculation about its origins became so intense that Sotheby’s and the print’s owners decided earlier this month to postpone its auction, so that researchers could begin delving into whether the image may be, in fact, one of the oldest photographic images in existence, dating to the 1790s.
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Sotheby’s |
