August is an auspicious month for photography - it has its official birthday on August 19th (European time). It was on that date that Frenchman Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre had his invention of the Daguerreotype recognized and purchased by the state: which, in a move of artistic nationalism, made it freely available to the world,
except Britain - it's great rival. While Britain had the greater empire and touted itself as the engineering centre of the world, France was regarded as the artistic capital of the western world and this further reinforced its position.
The origins of making a permanent image via a photographic device date back somewhat earlier to efforts by many people (32 claims were made of inventing photography), but the first images that still exist were made by Frenchman Nicéphore Niépce in 1825, his photogenic copies of a 17th-century engraving of a man with a horse and an etching or engraving of a woman with a spinning wheel. They are simply sheets of plain paper printed with ink in a printing press, like ordinary etchings, engravings, or lithographs, but the plates used to print them were created photographically by Niépce's process. In 1826 he took this a step further by capturing an image using a primitive camera. The invention was based on a on a metal plate covered in a somewhat light-sensitive concoction using bitumen of Judea that darkened and hardened in the presence of light energy. After exposure, the unexposed and liquid bitumen was washed away with lavender oil, leaving a permanent image. The result was indistinct but it
was the first successful capture of a permanent image using a camera. It was sold to the French National Gallery in 2004 for 450,000 Euros.
Niépce was struggling to develop the concept and was put in touch with Daguerre by a mutual contact, a lens maker. Daguerre was a showman, famous for the creation of dioramas that were amazing to people at the time and were hugely successful. Keen to find a way of making better backgrounds Daguerre engaged with Niépce, although each worked separately. Niépce continued to work on the Bitument of Judea without success, until he died in 1833. Meanwhile, Daguerre investigated a process using silver iodide, to reveal a latent image on metal using Mercury vapour. The result was both a positive and negative of incredible detail. He had fixing issues until he realized that hypo would do the job. When his invention was confirmed by the French Assembly he was granted a lifetime gratuity of 6,000 francs per annum, while Niépce's estate was granted 4,000 francs.
Meanwhile in Britain, a gentleman polymath and inventor, Heny Fox-Talbot had been dabbling with the idea of fixing an image after he tried to use a camera obscura to draw landscape images in Switzerland on his honeymoon. Frustrated by his lack of artistic abilities, he sought to make the camera obscura create and record an image for him. In 1834 Henry Fox-Talbot successfully captured images of his residence on 200, 1” paper negatives, then got distracted by other things. His fixing process used a strong saline solution that slowed, but did not stop, the degradation of his images. He did not pursue his invention until he heard of Daguerre's invention early in 1839, at which point he presented to the Royal Society in an effort to establish his credentials as an inventor. He patented his invention in England and Wales (but curiously enough not in Scotland and Ireland), and this held back the application of his process, which truly created the basis for film photography as we know it since he created a negative. His process was improved over the coming years and its successors eventually replaced the Daguerreotype as that system produced only a single positive image.
Debate raged (and still does) as to who can claim the credit for inventing photography - there are still vocal proponents for several people, and much depends on how one defines photography as an invention. It is apparent that several players were involved in this process, often without knowledge of one-another. But this summery may be of interest.
Photograms: First image captured by light but no camera were invented in Wedgewood in 1802, but not pursued to resolve fixing issues. In 1826 Niépce invented ‘heliography’, similar to photograms, but not pursued
Niépce 1826: first image with a camera, but impractical - he died in 1833
Photocopies: in Brazil Hercule Florence 1833 apparently created images of forms he needed to duplicate
Photogenic (Negative) Images: Fox-Talbot 1834 first
reproduceable images, but not pursued
Daguerreotype: Daguerre 1837: first
commercially-viable photographic process, super details, but not reproduceable
Once the basic principles were established many talented users around the world developed and improved the processes - creating clearer, reproduceable images with better technology in cameras, lenses, developing solutions and papers. In the end, we should just be grateful that we can enjoy the fruits of their inspiration and labour!
Here are a couple of videos about the evolution and operation of the Daguerreotype process"
George Eastman History of Photography seriesI would comment that the while America certainly utilized the process extensively, it was also embraced right around the world.
Victoria and Albert Museum demonstration of Daguerreotype process
