France Scully and Mark Osterman are rare practitioners,
artists, of the earliest photographic techniques, those
discovered, in part, by the legendary Fox Talbot. Although
the subject matter of their photography is wide, each year
Scully and Osterman return to Lacock Abbey, Talbot���s
ancestral home, in England, where he invented the
negative. In tandem with efforts in France, many believe
Lacock Abbey to be the birthplace of photography. I
encountered Scully and Osterman there last summer
while visiting with Richard Wendorf, the Director of the
American Museum in Britain, and Constantino Castellano.
During this chance meeting, I commissioned them on
the spot to photograph our small group at the Abbey,
creating a tintype or ferrotype. I watched a complex series
of maneuvers: fluids flowed gently to the four corners of
the tin plate; it was then dipped into a solution, placed
in the camera, exposed. Following an equally complex
protocol, it resulted in the most pristine image, an image
of startling verisimilitude.
HYLAND
