The world of photography has gone through huge changes in the last two decades, thanks to digital technology. The days of taking a roll of film to the drug store for processing are a thing of the past. Producing a photograph used to be a much more involved process, with darkrooms and chemicals. A new photography exhibition on the South Coast features some of the earliest photographs ever made.
Charlie Wylie is the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s Curator of Photography and New Media. He says the exhibition of more than 100 prints is called “Salt and Silver: Early Photography 1840-1860.”
The reason the exhibition is called salt and silver is that in the early days of photography, they were the key ingredients to making pictures. British scientist William Henry Fox Talbot developed the process, which was relatively simple and efficient.
The Santa Barbara exhibition features original salt prints from London’s Wilson Centre for Photography. Hope Kingsley is curator of the Wilson Centre. Kingsley says the works selected for the exhibition represent a cross section of how photography was used in its early days, in the 1840’a and 1850’s.
Kingsley says early photographers almost immediately realized the process could be more than just a means of documenting something. They saw the potential for it as a form of art.
She says for museum visitors, especially ones who grew up in the digital age, the exhibition opens the door to appreciating photography in a much different way.
“Salt & Silver: Early Photography 1840-1860” runs through December 8th at the museum.
