Loch Katrine,

1844

Talbot invented one of the two initial photographic processes that debuted before the public in 1839. Whereas his French counterpart, ­Louis-Jacques Mandé Daguerre, arranged for a lifetime government annuity for putting the metal-plate daguerreotype process in the public domain, Talbot obtained a patent for his own paper-based process, the calotype (from the Greek <em>kalos</em>, or ­beautiful) — the template for every negative-to-­positive, multiple-print method that ensued. Depending on minute chemical variations, the tones of a calotype range in character from rich purples to tawny browns — colors that serendipitously recall the appearance of fine printers’ inks and aquatint effects. To demonstrate the utility of his invention for publishing, Talbot helped to found a photographic printing establishment at Reading and issued, for sale by subscription, the serial <em>The Pencil of Nature</em> (1844) and, a year later, a twenty-three-print album, <em>Sun Pictures in Scotland</em>. <em>Loch Katrine</em>, an autumnal view in the latter folio, showcases some of the picturesque effects — paper grain, soft focus, and graphic contrast — that led one pious supporter to prefer the calotype to the daguerreotype, seeing in it "the imperfect work of man . . . and not the much diminished perfect work of God." e