Henry’s Taunt’s Greenhouse is a photographic project that recreates and reimagines the lost photographic plates from the archive of the Victorian photographer Henry Taunt. When Taunt died in 1922 his extensive collection of wet collodion photography was sold to a builder who started to clean the emulsion off to use the glass in the construction of greenhouses. Luckily, a local historian, realising the importance of the collection, stepped in and saved what was left of the archive. 

 

The missing plates, rephotographed and recreated 100 years on, negotiate a new relationship with the lost archive, exploring the fragility of the emulsion, glass substrate, and of memory.