Origins of Photography (to 1839) PDF

obscura. The more direct approach, shadow images of objects early nineteenth-century entrepreneurs. who saw in and paintings on glass, did leave a photographk imprint, lithography a process that could surpass existing methods for although it was not permanent since the silver nitr...

obscura. The more direct approach, shadow images of objects early nineteenth-century entrepreneurs. who saw in and paintings on glass, did leave a photographk imprint, lithography a process that could surpass existing methods for although it was not permanent since the silver nitrate illustration. In the earlyJ8oos, lithography aroused the kind continued to react to 1:ightuntil the surface darkened. In hjs of get-rich-quick excitement generated by small computer and 1802 report on their work, Davy announced that "nothing but software companies in the late twentieth century. a method of preventing the unshaded part of the delineation Lacking the ability to draw on the lithographic stone. from being coloured by exposure lo the day is wanting, to Niepce began to experiment with ways to produce an image render the process as useful as it is elegant." 11 Wedgwood was through the action oflight upon photosensitive materials. His prevented by illness from ta,king part i;n further joint experi- early efforts, begun in 1816, involved the use of paper made ments, and Davy moved on in other scientific directions, light sensitive by the application of a silver chloride solution. eventually becoming president of the Royal Society. After exposing the photosensitive paper in a camera obscura, Although Wedgwood and Davy's experiments in fixing a he experienced some of the very same problems as light-induced image were less successful than lhe later efforts Wedgwood and Davy.The image was too indistinct, and the of Florence, their efforts were known in scientific circles. action of the light could not be thoroughly stopped. Moreover, James Watt, whose perfected steam engine helped power the the tones of th.e image were reversed: dark became light, and Industrial Revolution, corresponded with Wedgwood and light became dark, to create what was later known as a may have attempted to make some photographs. Publication NEGATIVE. Niepce tried, without success, to use the negative of the Wedgwood and Davy experiments in the influential as it is used today-that is, printing it to create a positive journal ofth.e Royal lnstiti1tionof Great Britain (1802) image, in which the tones are re-reversed and thereby furthered their reputation. By contrast, Florence's corrected. He also failed to alter the reversed dark and light contribution was not recogruzed until 1970. Even so, their areas through chemical means. work did not become a stepping stone for subsequent Undaunted, Niepce continued to try out various light- successful attempts to stabilize an image through photo- sensitive materials. He does not seem to have known about chemical Teactions. the experiments of Wedgwood and Davy;nor, like them, did he encounter many past investigations of such materials. An THE "SUN WRITING" OF NIEPCE obscure 1727 paper on the effects of light on silver nitrate by Another precursor of photography was the "sun wtiting" German scientist Johann Hcinrich Schulze (1687-1744) developed in France by Joseph Nicepbore Niepce (1765-1833). might have been difficult to locate, but experiments with Born to a family of people w:hohad worked for French royalty, light-sensitive materials conducted by Swedish chemist Niepce received a fine educa.tion, and he came of age with Carl Wilhelm Scheele (J742-r786), published in £777, and high expectations. The French Revolution, which began in the work of Swiss librarian and botanist Jean Senebier t789, altered bis prospects and, from the seclusion of a (1742-1809), published in 1782, would have been available country estate, he sought ways of making a living. With to a researcher Hving in an academic and intellectual capital his brother Claude, he spent years perfecting an internal such as earJy nineteenth-century Paris. The discovery by combustion engine intended to power riverboats. Dubbed ·British scientist John Herschel (1792--r871),published in the pynfolophore,this engine was intended to rival the new 1819, that hyposulphite of soda dissolves silver dtloride, on board steam engine by bu:rnn1g vegetable oil or other thereby stopping its reaction to light, also seems to have been similar substances; it received a French patent in 1:807.Like unknown to Niepce, although he did receive advice about many would-be entrepreneurs who saw the development photosensitive materials from French chemist Louis-Nicolas of new machines and processes as the source of prosperity, Vauquelin (1763-1829). Niepce's approach to photography Niepce turned his attention to the potential of the was thus largely independent of the research of other$. 1? lithographic process. Beginning in 1822, Niepce shifted his interests to copying LITHOGRAPHY, a technique for reproducing images, uses engravings by means of the action of Jight. To do so, he drawings on a -flatsurface, usually a smooth stone (ancient saturated an engraving with oil to make it more transparent. Greek: lithos),rather than a metal or wood recessed surface, He then placed it on a pewter plate that had been coated with as in. engraving and etching. It was perfected in.q98 by the bitumen of Judea, a substance known to harden when German actor and writer Alois Senefelder (1771-1834). For exposed to light. After light exposure, the areas beneath the commun:icatinginformation the Lithographhad several engraving's dark lines remained soft, while those beneath the advantages. lt could yield quite a large number of prints, and light parts of the engraving hardened. The plate was rinsed it could render tones and shadows more subtly than etching mth lavender oil, washing away the soft areas. What and engraving, which gained their effects of light and dark remained became an engraving plate, after Niepce etched 1.11 JOSEPH NICEPHORE NIEPCE, Cardinal d'Amboise, 182.6.Heliograph on pewter plate (reproduction ofan engraving). Musee Nicephore from the closeness of jndividual lines scratched into the the now blank areas with acid. He then printed it (Fig. r.rr). Nit!pce, Chalon-sur-Saone, France. surface of the plate. Lithography appealed to painters, who Finding this procedure more encouraging tl1an his A seventeenth--century Image of Cardinal d'Amboise was one of the most popular and commercially successful engravings in France. Nit!pce could work directly on the lithograpltic stone without having e.xperiment with silver chloride, Niepce put a similarly copied the Image on to a pewter pl.ite by photographic means as an experiment to show that the process would make ,t possible to print lab01iously to c.ut lines into the surface. But it also intrjgued prepared plate in a camera obscura and exposed it in a multiple copies. although he never seems to have done so. 10 I THE ORIGINS OF PHOTOGRAPHY (to 1839) THE INVENTION OF "PHOTOGRAPHIES" I □ window at his estate, Le Gras. near Chalon-sur-Saone. After to power riverboats. Claude's ill-health and the increasing about eight hours, he removed the. plate. washed it with a financial strains on the family prompted Nie.peeto seek mixture ofoil oflavende.r and petroleum oil, and rinsed away funding for his photographic process. He managed to get those soluble areas of the plate where the bitmnen of Judea the attention and support of Francis Bauer (1758-1840), a had received less light. The resulting plate contained a poor fellow of the RoyaJSociety, for whom he prepared a short but visible negative of the scene outside the window where "Notice sur l'heliographie" ("Notice on Heliography") the camera obscura had been placed. The image itselfwas (December 8, 1827), desaibing the process in general terms. reversed laterally- that is. left to right. Ni.e.pcethen took the I-tis failure to generate interest in the process may have been plate and exposed it to iodine fumes. The iodine did not fully due to Niepce's cautious co:ucealment of his exact technique. reverse the tones, but it created greater contrasts. 13 In effect, Before returning to France in February 1828, Nie.peele(t Niepce made what is now called a DIRECT POSlTJVE image, many heliographs of engravings and the Viewfrom the one that, as the name implies. produces a photograph without Witidow ai Gras with Francis Bauer. a separate negative. Because there was no negative from THE COLLABORATION OF NIEPCE AND DAGUERRE which to print copies, the image could not be reproduced. Though not completely stable. Niepce's Viewfrom the Window While traveling through Paris on his journey to Britain, a.t Gras (c. r826) is considered to be the world's fnst Niepce met with Daguerre, at that time known as a painter, permanent photograph (Pig. 1.12). designer of stage sets, and co-proprietor of the Diorama, a ln t827, Niepce brought examples of his process-called distinctive kind of theater that presented realistic special heliography, fr0m the Greek words for sun and writing-to effects to thrill audiences (Fig. r.13).To plan his stage London, where he was visiting his brother Claude, who still iUusions, especially the impression of deeply recessed hoped to get financial backing for the combustion engine theatrical space, Daguerre employed the camera obscura. 1.13 LOUIS-JACQUES.MAN DE DAGUERRE, Landscape with Gothic Ruins and Figures, 1821. Brown ink and wash drawing. George Eastman House, Rochester, New York. Dagi,erre's watercolor of the mists and shadows ma ruined Gothic church gives a sense of the dramatic style of the Diorama's entertainment. Through carefully planned shifting lighting, transparent paintings on thin fabric, and sound effects. audiences were given the Impression of being In a ruin, on an alpine hill, or near a waterfall. He alc;omade some ineffectual attempts to capture photo- be did at his estate. Daguerre later admitted that the camera chemically the images produced by the camera obscura. obscura he gave to Niepce was ineffective in producing Daguerre and Niepce were introduced to one anotheT by clearer images. When Niepce died suddenly in 1833, Daguerre Charles Chevalier (1804-1859), a Parisian maker of optical took up his research. lllStruments and devices such as the camera obscura, with whom both men did business. After his disappointing trip DAGUERRE AND THE LATENT IMAGE to En.gland,coupled with the death of his brother Claude Daguerre's personal circumstances were very different from in Pebruary 1828, Niepceredoubledhis efforts to find a Niepce's. Born into a petit-bourgeois family, he lacked much photochemicaJ method to obtain permanent camera obscura formal education. Nevertheless, his outgoing personality images. He moved from using pewter plates to highly and d1ive to succeed contrasted with Niepce's docile yet polished silver plates and copper plates covered with silver. mistrustful attitude toward others. Daguerre was poised to He continued to use bitumen of Judea, which yielded better take advantage of social forces in the r83os. In France, the picture quality when employed on a silver backing. hold of upper-class 1andowning interests remained strong, Niepce had decided to work with Daguerre to imp.rove but was challenged by the growing power 0f middle-class ~ photographic process, even though, as the photographic commercial and industrial development. Business people, historians Alison and Helmut Gernsheim concluded, bureaucrats, and managers were part of an emerging elite D~erre could not produce a successful photograph to show based not on birth but on intelligence and hard work. Nie-pee.In a contract signed by both on December 14, 1829, Daguerre's humble beginnings and rise to prominence as Daguerre promised to give Niepce an improved camera a co-owner of the Diorama in Paris and, subsequently, in 1.12 ob~cura,and Nie.peeagreed to show Daguerre the means by London made him something of a class hero. JOSEPH NICEPHORE NIEPCE, Viewfrom the Window at Gras, c. 1826. Heliograph. Gemsheim Collection. Harry Ransom Humanities Re.searchCenter, University of Texas at Austin. wlnch hewas able to capture camera obscura images, which By 1835, Daguerre's experiments with Niepce's materials- 12 I THE ORIGINS OF PHOTOGRAPHY (to 1839) THE INVENTION OF "PHOTOGRAPHIES" I r3 silver plates, silver-plated copper plates, and iodine-led to camera obscura adapted for it and exposed to light. Exposure his concenb·ating on the creation of a LATENT JMAGE-that times varied, but the earliest daguerreotypes took about four is. an image that had been registered on the silver surface to five minutes (Fig. r.r5), according to one of the reports of a plate, but which was not yet visible. Like Niepce, who sent to the French Chamber of Deputies. The plate, with its treated Viewfrom the Windowwitb iodine fumes, Daguene latent image, was the.n put in a special box and exposed to realized that treatments after exposure could effectively bring mercury fumes, which blended with the silver to produce a out the image. Where Niepce started with a visible image, and visible image. The still light-reactive image was thoroughly intensified the tones using iodine fumes to give the picture washed with a sodium chloride (table salt) solution, which greater contrast, Daguerre found that there was a latent stopped the response to light, and then carefully rinsed with image on the exposed silver plate, which could be treated with plain water. mercury fumes, further developing the picture and making With his success, Daguerre renegotiated the contract it visible. Soon after, in 1837, he discovered that a solution of he had made with Niepce, which was held by Niepce's son common table salLdissolved in hot water would stop the light- Isidore (1805-1868). Lnr837, Daguerre demanded and sensitive material from continuing to react (Fig. r.14). received t.heright to call himself the inventor of the process, In the end, Daguerre's photographic process was so and to have the process bear his name. Isidore Niepce simple that he, like Nie.peebefore him, began to worry about secured bis father's legacy by getting Daguerre to agree that someone stealing it, and robbing him of both his place in accounts ofboth photographic processes would be published history andh:is long-sought £nancial reward.. To make a together. Additionally, Dague:i,-reand Isidore Niepce arranged DAGUERREOTYPE, a copper sheet plated with silver was given to market the processes by subscription-that is, by selling a high polish. The plate, as it was called, was placed with the shares to the public. However, an initial attempt in 1838 to silver side down over a closed box containing iodine. The convince the public to buy shares in the new business failed.. lJ iodine fumes fused with the silver to create silver iodide. Paradoxically, Daguerre's reputation for creating optical which is light sensitive. The plate was then fitted into a illusions at the Diorama seems to have made the public II 1.15 DAGUERRE, View of the Boulevard du Temple, c. 1839. Daguerreotype. Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, Germany. LOUIS-JACQUES-MAND£ suspicious of his methods. For a second attempt in late 1838, member of the Chamber of Deputies, had already sponsored Daguerre prepared a broadsheet describing his research and bilis for the development of the railroad and the telegraph. that of1'iie-pce.l Ie subtly promoted h:isown process, while While be may have seen in Daguerre's process a counterpart paving sentimental, faintly belittling attention to Niepce's to his own attempts to measure the intensity oflight, he also early efforts. The broadsheet boasted that the daguerreotype recognized that the ingredients of the daguerreotype process required only three to thirty minutes' outdoor exposure to were sufficiently simp1e and easily available for the procedure light, and speculated on future uses. Daguerre considered to be quickly copied. Since copyright would not readily that the daguerreotype would be used by the "leisured class," secure rights to the process, Arago cleverly suggested that rm king renderings of counb-y houses, and providing the the government provide Daguerre and Isidore Niepce with mean!"to "form collections of all kinds." "The little work it pensions, and that the new process bemagnanimously given entails,· he concluded, "will greatly p1ease ladies.",.. to the world by France. Al _aboutthe same time, Daguerre attempted to _persuade On January 7, 1839, Arago made a statement to the French prorrnnent scientists and artists to endorse his photographic Academy of Science describing the process in general terms, process. When the astronomer and politician Fram;:oisArago and emphasizing the originality o[ Daguerre's invention. saw the daguerreotype, he soon set about securing French The day before, H. Gaucherauci, a journalist wiiti.ng for the government assistance for the process. Government support Gazette de France,previewed the new-process, suggesting that : 0 r science and mvention was an important feature of French the fine detail of the daguerreotype would not substantially intellectual l.ife.15 With the sponsorship of a member of the challenge drawing and painting, because the appearance of French Academy of Science, and Lheapproval of the Academy, the daguerreotype was much closer to the look of engravings 1.14 a French atizen could approach the relevant government LOUIS-JACQUES-MAND£ DAGUERRE, Still Life (lntefior of o uibinet of Curiosities), 1837. Daguerreotype. and of mezzotints, a printing process able to produce a Societe Fran~ise de Photographie, Paris. department for funds. Arago, a liberal and progressive greater range of tones than etchings and engravings. u i4 I THE ORIGINS OF PHOTOGRAPHY (to 1839) THE INVENTION OF "PHOTOG.RAPHIES" I 15 RESPONSES TO THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF such as that produced by Niepce and Daguerre, butonethat Although Baprd's melodramatic pretense did not earn him he and others considered to be a simpler and more elegant the honor hC' desired, he did not drown himself, but went on THE DAGUERREOTYPE process than theirs. Bayard completel> darkened light- to make further photographs, some of which, like his Self- News of Daguerre's invention was quickly broadcast. and sensitive paper that had been soaked in sodium diloride by PortriliJ, teased the viewer into thinking about what could be caught the attention of those who recalled related exper- exposing it to light. He then took the blackened paper and represented in photography, and what could not (seep. 31; iments and those who were working on similar photographic soaked it again, this time in a solution of potassium iodide. Fig 2.12) processes. Francis Bauer, to whom Niepce had given some When this paper was placed in a camera obscura and heliographs, quickly organized a British exhibit of these exposed. the light bleached the paper according to its HERSCHEL'S "PHOTOGRAPHIC SPECIMENS" works, in an effort to publicize bis acquaintance's earlier intensity. like the daguerreotype, Bayard's unnamed process 111Britam mea.1while, John Herschel. like many scientists, accomplishments. ln a March 1839 paper on photography, produced a single, unique print that could not be used as a became mtngued with the recent announcement of the John Herschel recalled that a book by Elizabeth Fulhame, negative to make multiple copies. Jaguerrcotype, even though the precise formula and Viewto a NewArt.of Dying[sicJ and Painting(1794), proposed Hoping to share Daguerre's success, Bayard showed his matenals had not been divulged. Two decades before, in 1819, capturing and retaining images on cloth through the images to Arago, who was disconcerted by the prospect of Her,chel bad e.xploredthe properties of a chemical called interaction oflight and certain metals. 11 The historian another inventor. Doubtless aware of such famous challenges hyposulphite of soda, discovering that it would dissolve silver of photography Pierre G. Harmant has revealed that, from to discovery as the struggle between British scientist Joseph ,;alts. H~ PO (now the term for sodium Lhiosulfate), used today L839on, twenty-four persons claimed to have invented Priestley and French scientist A.-L. Lavoisier for the discovery in the dewlopment process of black-and-white photography, photograpby. 18 Among them was Hippolyte Bayard (1801- of oxygen, Arago secured some small funds to enable Bayard got its mclmame from Herschel's nineteenth-century work. 1887), who attempted to deduce Daguerre's process before to continue his experiments, but asked him not to announce Another of Herschel's early photographic experiments was the specific information was released to the public. his findings. Although Bayard exhibited about thirty of his 1831exploration of the light reactions of platinum salts. hls direct positive prints on July 14, 1839, lack of official A few\\eeks after Daguerre's announcement, Herschel BAYARD'S DIRECT POSITIVE PROCESS recognition prevented him from achieving Daguerre's began to try his luck with photography. Jn his notebook for Bayard, a minor official in the French Ministry of Finance celebrity. Using hls direct positive process, Bayard created a January 29. 1839. he wrote: "Expts [e,rperiments] tried within with no scientific training, responded to the 1839 announce- comic yet critical response to his nation's neglect ofhis work. the last fe\, days since hearing of Daguerre's secret & that Fox ment of Daguerre's method by making photographic In an image he titled Self-Portraitas a DrownedMan, Bayard Talbothas also got something of same kind. ~ltl On the very experiments. He aimed at making a direct positive print. photographed hlmself feigning death by suicide (Fig. u6). next day,v.ith no understanding of Daguerre's process, but 1.18 JOHN HERSCHEL. Untilled, 1842. Cyanotype. Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. a wealth ofknowledge about light-sensitive chemicals and lenses, Herschel succeeded in fixing a camera image and conceived making prints from a negative image. On February 7, 1839, he showed some of his images at the Royal Society in London. Writing to his friend and colleague Talbot a few days later, he referred to his "photographlc specimens" (Fig. 1.17). Herschel was not the only one ofTalbot's correspondents to use the term. Charles Wheatstone, the scientist and inventor oflhe stereoscope, wrote to Talbot on February 2, 1839, referring to Talbot's "photographic experiments."" The word "photographic" quickly evolved into "photography,~ the general term for the medium. (The term photographie employed by Florence may have been used earlier, but his work was unknown in Europe.) 1.16 HIPPOLYTE BAYARD,Self-Portrait as a Drowned Herschefs photographic investigations continued into Man, 1840. Direct paper positive. Societe Fran~ise the 1840s. He experimented with the possibilities of color de Photographie, Paris. photography, using vegetable dyes; he also used iron salts to Play,ng on the Romantic nollon of the create a process he dubbed CYANOTYPE, which produced an misunderstood artist who commits suicide, Bayard penned a note on the back of th,s photograph, image in which the dominant tones were deep Prussian blue suggesting that he ended his life in penniless 1.17 and white (Fig. r.r8). Herschel was one of the first to voice despair. Noting the darkness ofh,s hands and face. the democratic potential of photography: of the cyanotype he Bayard added that these ,ndicated decompos,tton. ~HN HERSCHEL, William Herschel's Telescope Seen Through tl,e Window 01 since no one even came to the morgue to cla,m h,s 11,a~f February 10, 1839. Silver-based negative. National Media Museum, wrote that every person might be a printer and a publisher. 11 rd, England. body!" While it never became a major form of photography, the 16 I THE ORIGINS OF PHOTOGRAPHY (lo 1839) RESPONSES TO THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DAGUERREOTYPE I 17