ADM03 - Personal Research Visit Phillip Hall-Patch ADM03 - Personal Research Visit ‘Flora Hoviensis, 2016’ Taken 22.03.2016 Presented 12.04.2016

‘Flora Hoviensis, 2016’ A homage to William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877) who produced ‘Flora Harrowviensis’ in 1815. Also Anna Atkins (1799-1871) who produced cyanotype images of flora and fauna across the UK. NB: Intended full site visit not completed. Submission covers trial day only.

Why this site visit? My Methodology (if not my Methods) seem to be returning me to the origins of photography and Talbot’s experimental and inductive method of discovery through reflective action. My site visit would be a homage to Talbot’s early experiments in camera-less photography (or Photogenic Drawing as he called it) where he captured the likeness (shadows) of the intricate patterns of shapes of the specimens he cultivated in his herbavorium at Lacock Abbey. Specimens and Marvels: William Henry Fox Talbot and the Invention of Photography (2000), Eds. Robert, R. et al

Observations: To achieve direct & accurate representations of the flora & fauna I would require a contact printing frame. However, the images I have produced bring with them a sense of motion and therefore time which is in fact exactly the quality I am looking for in my research project. I am surprised at the quality of the images produced and how engaging they are in appearance. I have since found interesting research on artists who have pushed the bounds of cyanotype printing to new forms of expression. E.g.: Panaro-Smith & Hajicek, as cited in Photography Beyond Technique (2014), Ed. Tom Persinger. I am also engaged by the 3-dimensional “objecthood” of the distorted papers. See Quadrate (1983) by Gottfried Jager .