In the history of early photographs, Louis Daguerre He appears faithfully as one of the fathers of the medium. His patent process, Daguerreotypewhich was widely used for nearly 20 years in the early 19th century, and produced many images related to that era. Abraham Lincoln, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinsonand John Brown. But if things were different, we may better know the difficult name of his former partner Joseph Nikefor Niepsecreated the first known photograph taken in 1826.
Like a gentleman’s inventor, Niepsse (bottom) began experimenting with lithography and its ancient device, the camera obscura.
He started by mixing the chemicals into a flat pewter plate and placing them in the camera. After exposing the plates to light for 8 hours, the inventors washed and dried. What remains, as Nipse wrote, is the image above, from the “room in which I work” of his country property, now Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas Austin.
The Ransom Center website includes: A short video explaining It shows Niepsse’s house and how scholars recreated how he took the photographs. Another video It provides insight into the Niépce process, which was invented to create his “heliograph.” In 1827, Niepsse traveled to England to visit his brother. While there, with the help of British botanist Francis Bauer, he presented a paper on his new invention. Royal Society. However, his findings were rejected as he chose not to fully reveal the details, hoping to obtain financial benefits in his own way. Niepsé left Pewter Image with Bauer and returned to France, and in 1829 he returned to France shortly after agreeing to a 10-year partnership with Daguerre.
Sadly, for Niepsse, his heliograph did not produce the financial or technical success he imagined, and he died in 1833 just four years later. Of course, Daguerre developed his famous process in 1839 and moved into history, but remembered Nipce’s efforts, but he remembers what he could achieve with what he could achieve his own training with limited materials. Daguerre may receive a lot of credits, but it was Nipse and his heliography of “scientifically like-minded gentleman.” Head of Ransom Center Photo Conservation Barbara Brown– To “inventing a new medium.”
Images of Niépce’s Pewter plates were rediscovered in 1952 by Helmut and Alison Gernsheim. Photo Journal. Afterwards, Gerseym created the above replicas in Eastman Kodak Company. The “point-error effect” in this image “is due to the breeding process,” Brown wrote, and the image was “touched in watercolor.” [Helmut] Gernsheim himself felt that the original should appear in the recreation to bring it to get as close as possible to his approximation as possible. ”
Note: Previous versions of this post were published on our site in 2015.
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Josh Jones He is a writer and musician based in Durham, North Carolina. Follow him in @jdmagness
Source: Open Culture – www.openculture.com
