Photography is the art of fixing a shadow said William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), the inventor of photography on paper, to which the Estensi Galleries dedicate, from 12 September 2020 to 10 January 2021, "L imprint of reality. William Henry Fox Talbot. At the origins of photography ". This is the first major Italian retrospective that documents the activity of this pioneer of photography, comparing his work with that of other photographers, artists, scientists, and documenting his links with Italy, in particular with Modena.

Through over 100 works on display, including photogenic drawings, calotypes, daguerreotypes, engravings from daguerreotypes, contemporary photographs, the exhibition traces the experiences that led to the birth of this new form of representation of reality. The exhibition also offers the extraordinary autograph correspondence between William Henry Fox Talbot and the Modenese optician, mathematician, astronomer and natural scientist Giovanni Battista Amici (1786-1863), showing some scientific instruments that were the basis of the relationship between the two inventors.