Today, photography seems very simple and accessible, especially with our portable and mobile devices. However, it was not the same for the people of the 19th century. The invention of the first permanent photo changed the course of our creative lives forever and has gotten us to the incredible technology today. How did photography make its start anyways?
Origin
It wasn’t until 1826 that the first permanent photo was developed by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in France, using a camera obscura to capture an image of the courtyard of his estate and project and copy onto a pewter sheet coated with light-sensitive substances.
What is a camera obscura?
A camera obscura, meaning “dark room” in Latin, was used to create images by reflecting light onto a screen or sheet. Initially, camera obscuras consisted of using an angled mirror in a box with a small opening to reflect light entered from the outside onto another surface, inside a dark room. As seen in the diagram below, they acted as an enlarged retina, which displays the flipped image coming through the eye lens, or angled mirror in this case.
Who is Joseph Nicéphore Niépce?
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce was a French inventor, born in 1765 in Chalon-sur-Saône, France, and died in the same town in 1833. Niépce began his research with photography and engineering after returning from the French army. He began experimenting with lithography – a printing process – and became curious to find a way to produce images without drawing, as his illustration skills were quite weak.
He developed heliography, which is a technique using sunlight and bitumen to harden and engrave asphalt onto a metal plate, therefore creating a permanent image. The term heliography comes from the Greek words helios (sun) and graphein (writing).
Unsatisfied with the exposure time and quality of the permanent photograph, Niépce reached out to Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, a French painter and physicist, in 1829, who perfected heliography and reduced the exposure time to about 20-30 minutes. He also succeeded at creating a better quality image with a chemical process using a copper plate coated with silver iodide. This led to the first successful technique of photography, known as the daguerreotype.
Significance
Without Niépce’s trials and development of heliography, photography would’ve never developed into daguerreotype, which in turn would not produce successful photography. It’s important to acknowledge the origins of things we may take for granted nowadays in order to fully appreciate them and better them. We’ve come a very long way thanks to these inventions and continue to be evolving the power of photography. Who knows, at this point, photography could end up reflecting 3D/virtual images in the future!
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/technology/photography
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicephore-Niepce
https://www.britannica.com/technology/camera-obscura-photography
https://www.nfi.edu/when-was-photography-invented/
https://www.nga.gov/press/exh/2866/camera-obscura.html
https://www.britannica.com/technology/daguerreotype
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Louis-Daguerre