Salted paper print from a calotype negative by William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877).

Talbot invented the negative/positive process for producing photographs between 1835 and 1839, and for this is widely recognised as the inventor of modern photography. Any number of prints could be made from the same shot by transferring the negative image on to special paper to make a positive print. He spent most of his life at Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire where he conducted the majority of his photographic experiments. In August 1835, Talbot made the earliest surviving photographic negative.