Revelations: Experiments in Photography, Science Museum - exhibition review

The Victorian photography pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot described his work as “a little bit of magic realised”. He could have been describing this magnificent exhibition, which places works from the National Photography Collection by early experimentalists such as Talbot alongside images by leading contemporary photographers.

In photography, art has always strived to represent science, while advances in science have helped produce striking art. Here are the earliest images of the moon, and a haunting attempt to show the beauty of electrical discharges.

Time plays a crucial part. László Moholy-Nagy explored electrical sparks and here in comparison is Hiroshi Sugimoto’s 2009 creation of electric forces in Lightning Fields 2016. From there, Harold Edgerton shot Bullet Through Lemon, c.1955. The contemporary photographers here are true heirs to the pioneers: continuing to capture magical experiments with abstract beauty.