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The invention of photography marks a technological breakthrough, a scientific discovery, and the ongoing competition between England and France, who were both vying for social and economic dominance within Europe.
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, First Photograph, 1827
While 1839 marks the official year of the invention of photography, the "first" photograph was actually created in 1827 by a man named Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. Niepce called his "photographic" process heliography (from the Greek word "Helios," meaning sun). Initially, Niepce experimented with bitumen of Judea (or asphaltum) and attempted to replicate two-dimensional forms. Once he achieved a modicum of success, he put a bitumen-coated plate in the back of a camera obscura. When exposed to light, the bitumen hardened, thereby making it less soluble in acid and allowing Neipce to etch his image on to the pewter surface. Although heliography is similar to modern day printmaking processes, such as lithography or intaglio, it marks the first time that a mechanical representation of the "real" world was printed on to a two-dimensional surface. While Niepce's "photograph" might look unremarkable today, it was his process that led directly to the invention of the Daguerreotype and modern day photography.
Niépce & Daguerre, Illustration
In 1829, Niepce formed a partnership with a successful "diorama" artist and businessman named Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre. Together Daguerre and Niepce refined the heliographic process. In 1833, Niepce suddenly died, thereby leaving Daguerre alone to further develop the process. Between 1833 (the death of Niepce) and 1839 (the official date of photography), Daguerre experimented with heating silver plated copper plates with iodine and inserting them into the back of the camera obscura. Once exposed, the plates were treated (or developed) in mercury fumes and fixed with table salt. The result was a photograph, or Daguerreotype, a small, direct positive.
Daguerre and Arago presenting the Daguerreotype to the French Academy of Sciences, Illustration
On January 7th, 1839, Daguerre teamed up with the savvy French scientist Arago, and together they presented Daguerre's process to the French Academy of Sciences. In the speech Arago gave to the Academy, he announced that the Daguerreotype was a "gift to humanity" and a "force for social progress". While the people in France were free to experiment with the Daguerreotype process, the English were forced to buy a license.
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Portrait of WIlliam Henry Fox Talbot, Antoaine Claudet, 1844
Meanwhile in England, a man of means and leisure, William Henry Fox Talbot, became interested in the camera obscura. Although he wanted to be a talented artist, he knew that he lacked skills. Instead, he concentrated his efforts on figuring out how to fix the images projected on to the back of the camera obscura. Drawing on the discovery made by Johann Heinrich Schultz (almost a century before), Talbot started experimenting with silver nitrate. In 1835, Talbot exposed the first photographic negative on a sheet of salted paper that was soaked in a silver nitrate solution. Once Daguerre announced his invention, Talbot went to the Royal Academy of Sciences in England and introduced his own process, which he later called the "Calotype."
Latticed Window (negative), William Henry Fox Talbot, 1835 (calotype)
In February, 1839, William Henry Fox Talbot visited a leading scientist by the name of Sir John Herschel. Herschel had discovered an effective fixing agent, hyposulphite of soda (sodium thiosulphate), and gave Talbot permission to use the agent in conjuction with his invention. In addition, Herschel also coined the term "photography" to describe Talbot's "photogenic drawing" process and the terms "negative" and "positive" to replace Talbot's "reversed copy" and "re-reversed copy."
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