Size Matters, Vienna, 05.12. – 13.12.2019

Anna Hofbauer, Stefanie Seibold

“There is an irony in our use of terminology here. In 1839, Talbot was very careful to refer to his various methods as ‘fixing’ – they operated very much like the fixative one puts on chalk drawings – the underlying image is still vulnerable but the artist has done something to protect it. Today we refer to these methods as stabilisation, for they impart a degree of durability to the photographic image, however leaving behind a complex residue of chemistry. Herschel on the other hand very descriptively called his use of hypo a ‘washing-out’ method.  The hypo permitted the remaining silver salts to be removed completely. But soon this careful distinction was turned on its head, and Herschel’s approach came to define the meaning of a fixer.”

(excerpt from To fix or not to fix? – Sir John Herschel’s question, posted on 22nd January 2016 by Larry J. Schaaf, https://talbot.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/2016/01/22/to-fix-or-not-to-fix-sir-john-herschels-question/)