{"@context":"http:\/\/iiif.io\/api\/presentation\/2\/context.json","@id":"https:\/\/api.artic.edu\/api\/v1\/artworks\/38930\/manifest.json","@type":"sc:Manifest","label":"Two Plant Specimens","description":[{"value":"Contained within this haunting and poetic image is the seed of photography: the possibility of creating a negative from which an unlimited number of positives can be made. William Henry Fox Talbot produced this image by placing botanical specimens on sensitized paper and exposing them to light. He made this groundbreaking discovery after his 1833 honeymoon on the shores of Lake Como, in Lombardy, Italy. Frustrated by his inability to draw his Italian surroundings accurately, Talbot recalled the fleeting images of external objects that appeared within a camera lucida (an optical prism that creates a superimposed image on an artist\u2019s drawing surface) and wondered how he could make them \u201cimprint themselves durably, and remain fixed upon the paper.\u201d What resulted, two years later, were the first camera negatives. Unveiled in 1839 and called photogenic drawing, Talbot\u2019s process was perfected two years later into the calotype (from the Greek word kalos, meaning \u201cbeautiful\u201d). By the end of his life, Talbot\u2014whose far-ranging interests included mathematics, botany, etymology, and ancient Assyria\u2014had also discovered the basis of halftone printing, obtained twelve patents, and authored seven books, including one of the first photographically illustrated books, The Pencil of Nature (1844).\n","language":"en"}],"metadata":[{"label":"Artist \/ Maker","value":"William Henry Fox Talbot\nEnglish, 1800\u20131877"},{"label":"Medium","value":"Photogenic drawing"},{"label":"Dimensions","value":"22.1 \u00d7 18 cm (8 3\/4 \u00d7 7 1\/8 in.); Mount: 29 \u00d7 21.5 cm (11 7\/16 \u00d7 8 1\/2 in.); Image\/paper: 22.1 \u00d7 18.1 cm (8 11\/16 \u00d7 7 1\/8 in.)"},{"label":"Object Number","value":"1972.325"},{"label":"Collection","value":"<a href='http:\/\/www.artic.edu\/collection' target='_blank'>Art Institute of Chicago<\/a>"}],"attribution":"Digital image courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.","logo":"https:\/\/raw.githubusercontent.com\/Art-Institute-of-Chicago\/template\/main\/aic-logo.gif","within":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu\/collection","rendering":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu\/artworks\/38930","format":"text\/html","label":"Full record"},"sequences":[{"@type":"sc:Sequence","canvases":[{"@type":"sc:Canvas","@id":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2\/f4b72c7b-83e4-3008-d66f-46d87c30ca96","label":"Two Plant Specimens, 1839. William Henry Fox Talbot, English, 1800\u20131877","width":843,"height":1028,"images":[{"@type":"oa:Annotation","motivation":"sc:painting","on":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2\/f4b72c7b-83e4-3008-d66f-46d87c30ca96","resource":{"@type":"dctypes:Image","@id":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2\/f4b72c7b-83e4-3008-d66f-46d87c30ca96\/full\/843,\/0\/default.jpg","width":843,"height":1028,"service":{"@context":"http:\/\/iiif.io\/api\/image\/2\/context.json","@id":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2\/f4b72c7b-83e4-3008-d66f-46d87c30ca96","profile":"http:\/\/iiif.io\/api\/image\/2\/level2.json"}}}]}]}]}