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This is the third article in a series on the history of the photographic process for The PonF Project . The original can be viewed here . In 1839, Louis Daguerre was pronounced ‘The Inventor of Photography’. This did not sit well with many others, Nicéphore Niépce ’s son, Isidore, for one. He was furious that his father’s work wasn’t even mentioned by Daguerre and spent the rest of his life telling anyone who would listen that it was, in fact, his father, who really invented photography.  There were several other people working simultaneously and independently of each other to perfect a fixed photographic image.  Sir John Herschel by Julia Margaret Cameron, April 1867 In 1819, the Polymath Scientist, Sir John Herschel discovered that hyposulfite of soda (now known as sodium thiosulfate, or “hypo”, common photographic fixer) dissolved silver salts. Herschel discovered what would become the platinum printing process in 1832, based on his research of the light sens...

This is the second articles in a series I am writing for The PonF Camera Project . You can find the original post here . Daguerreotypes and the Popularization of Photography In our previous entry we looked at Nicéphore Niépce and his Heliograph , View from the Window at Le Gras . This entry focuses on his business partner Louis Daguerre. Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was born on 18 November 1787 in Cormeilles-en-Parisis, Val-d’Oise, France. He was trained as an Architect, but was known for his skill at theatrical illusion and diorama painting. His fascination began when he used a camera obscura to aid in the painting of his large Diorama Paintings for his theater. When he partnered with N icéphore Niépce, his mind was always on the money-making potential of the medium of photography. In 1833 Nicéphore Niépce suddenly died, leaving all of his notes to Louis Daguerre. Daguerre would all but abandon the bitumen-based photographic process they had been working on in favour ...

This is the first in a series of articles I've written for The PonF Camera Project on the history of the photographic process. You can find the original post here . The First Photograph View from the Window at Le Gras Nicéphore Niépce, 1826 This is the oldest surviving photograph made by a camera. It is called is a Heliograph and it was produced in 1826 by Nicéphore Niépce. This image is the manually enhanced version made by historian Helmut Gernsheim in 1952. T he actual plate looks like this (The dimples were caused by damage sometime after 1952): Niépce’s other pioneering work included the invention of the Heliogravure, a process used to copy drawings and engravings. He worked with Louis Daguerre perfecting many photographic processes like the Physautotype.  Niépce and his brother Claude invented the Pyréolophore, the world’s first internal combustion engine. View from the Window at le Gras was created by dissolving Bitumen of J...