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. The 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 Judea in Lavender oil
and brushing it onto a pewter plate. The sensitised plate was then loaded into
the back of a camera obscura similar to this one:
The exposure took anywhere from 8 hours to several days (modern experiments lean toward several days). Notice how the sun strikes both sides of the buildings?
The exposure took anywhere from 8 hours to several days (modern experiments lean toward several days). Notice how the sun strikes both sides of the buildings?
After the plate was exposed, it was washed with lavender oil and white
petroleum. The bitumen in the areas of the image that received more light would
harden and remain and the areas that received less light would wash away. The
Heliographic process doesn’t yield a terribly detailed photograph, but
considering this is one of the very first times that a permanent image was made
with a camera, it’s pretty incredible. This process, as well as Niépce’s
Physautotype process, are still practiced today.
View from the Window at le Gras is on display at The Henry RansomCenter, in Austin Texas. You can also visit Niépce’s home and workshop, TheMaison Nicéphore Niépce in Paris.
With
the birth of photography, the process of making a permanent photograph was
neither easy nor convenient. It was the domain of scientists, inventors and
craftsmen. It would be some time before everyone would be able to be a
photographer.
Up
next: The Daguerreotype
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