Photography and the art of chance

William Henry Fox Talbot and his picture machine

Defining art against the mechanical, c. 1860

Julia Margaret Cameron transfigures the glitch

The fog of beauty, c. 1890

Alfred Stieglitz moves with the city

Stalking chance and making news, c. 1930

Frederick Sommer decomposes our nature

Pressing photography into a modernist mold, c. 1970

John Baldessari plays the only game in town.