John Pfahl, a Visiting Artist on one of my Summersite Lake Como photo workshops, and I led students to try to find where Fox Talbot was unsuccessfully trying to draw a landscape with his Camera Lucida. We showed a xerox of Talbot's drawing to every taxi driver we could find in Bellaggio, and asked "Where is this?" with no luck. Finally we found a taxi driver who said "Il Belvedere!" "Take us there," we said, and he did. Unfortunately just as we got there, the heavens opened up and it began to pour.

Neal Rantoul and I took a group of students to the same spot at the next Lake Como workshop, and we had better luck with the weather. Compare the photo above with Fox Talbot's drawing and note the three knobs on the outline of the mountain range in the right background. These are the Corni di Canzo.

Abelardo Morell & I gave a photo workshop on Lake Como the next year. To see what we discovered, click here