THE BIRTH OF PHOTOGRAPHY

From the beginning of time people have been fascinated with the ability to encapsulate and perpetuate the living into the form of an image. We can trace back drawings of animals in caves to the last stages of the Paleolithic era, about 20,000 years ago.

JOSEPH NICEPHORE NIEPCE (1765-1833)

It was not until 1826 that Niepce took the very first photograph using a camera. The photograph was taken from the window of his Paris home of a nearby pigeon house and barn. Niepce called his pictures "Heliographs," which were exposed on pewter plate measuring 8 inches by 6 ½ inches, that had been sensitized with bitumen. The agonizing exposure would sometime take up to eight hours. Niepce formed a partnership with Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre to continue the "New Art". Unfortunately, Niepce died of a stroke in 1833 and left Daguerre to perfect the New Art all by himself.

LOUIS JACQUES MANDE DAGUERRE (1787-1851)

This French painter was actively engaged in trying to secure permanent images with a camera obscura before entering into partnership in 1829 with Niepce. The latter had experimented with iodized plates (both pewter and silver-coated metal plates) before his death in 1833, but Daguerre alone perfected the finally adopted method of sensitizing the silver plates with the fumes of iodine. In 1837 and 1838, Mr. Daguerre attempted to sell, or interest subscribers in his "daguerreotype" invention, but then the director of the Paris Observatory (Francois Arago) stepped into the picture. Arago used his influence to have France purchase Mr. Daguerre's invention and make it available to the entire world. Within a year, manuals covering the daguerreotype process were published in eight languages, and in thirty-two separate editions. The process was a No-Negative one, but for nearly two decades it served as the worlds principal mode of photography. (see Morse for more information)

WILLIAM H. FOX TALBOT (1800-1877)

Talbot of England was not aware of Daguerre's activities. He experimented with photography and in 1835 he succeeded in securing images on plain writing paper, which he sensitized with silver chloride. Because he was so preoccupied with research in other scientific fields, he did not have the time to make a formal report of his discoveries before Daguerre did in Paris. Talbot called his new invention "Photogenic Drawings".