Youth and Age

Fallon Horne was a photographer known as much for his amiable, practical nature as for his calotypes. This richly metaphorical image of a boy and man is meant to represent the stages of life rather than the individuals who posed for the portrait. The boy kneels before his elder, looking up to him as if for guidance. His hand covers the open pages of a book he has been reading, as if to suggest the older man is the better source of wisdom and learning. Horne was a co-founder of Horne, Thornthwaite of London, opticians and manufacturers of scientific instruments, which produced the camera shown in this exhibition.