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Early Photography (1800's)

History and Overview

Photography is the process of recording an image on a material, through the medium of light. The word photography is derived from two Greek words: photos (which means “light”), and graphein (the process of drawing) (Metropolitan Museum of Art). Throughout the history and development of this process, photography was criticized because of its dependency on technology. For example, a renowned painter Paul Delaroche said “From today, painting is dead” (Grundberg, Rosenblum, Gernsheim, Newhall). But, photography came to be and was perfected over the course of the 18th century, and through intermingling of the sciences and arts.

The precursor to the camera was actually the “camera obscura” (16th century), which is a dark room with a hole in one wall. The hole projects objects, that are outside the room, onto the wall opposite it. Giambattista della Porta, an Italian writer and writer, to developed the “camera obscura” such that it incorporated a lens, during the latter half of the 16th century (Grundberg et. al.). At this time, the results of the camera obscura still depended on the artist and his/her/their drawing abilities; but people continued to further the development so that the results were purely mechanical.

Daguerreotype

After several experiments, Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre, a professional scene painter, and Nicephore Niepce, an inventor who worked on holographic images, paired together to create what came to be known as the Daguerreotype photography. It was first developed in Paris, in 1839, but spread rapidly throughout the world soon after (). While Daguerre’s focus was to shorten the exposure time that was necessary to capture an image of the subject, Niepce’s interest focused on creating reproducible plates (). After, Niepce’s death, Daguerre took his partner’s work to discover that an image can be presented on a plate of iodized salt, and then can be made visible by exposing it to mercury vapor (which rests on the exposed parts of an image) (). While this allowed for a shortened exposure time, the results were still not permanent because the unexposed areas of silver iodide continued to darken (to the point of complete blackness) when given light. However, Daguerre fixed this issue and made it permanent by dissolving the unexposed silver in a solution of table salt. Later that year, 1837, he created a photograph that captured depth and detail, this officiated the process as Daguerreotype photographs. During the 1850's, daguerreotypes spread across the world to places in Europe (England and the rest of France), North and South America (namely Brazil), Asia (the Middle East, Japan, and parts of Indonesia).

Calotype

William Henry Fox Talbot, a scientist in the University of Cambridge, furthered the development of daguerreotypes because of his frustration of not being able to draw his scientific observations even with the help of a camera lucida (a prism-shaped, light-based device). He took his research, which began by using fibrous paper and developing the idea of negatives coming in contact with sensitive paper and light to form any number of positives (came to be known as Photogenic drawings). In 1840, Talbot discovered, while experimenting with Gallic acid, that it can be used to create a latent image and changed the process of photography on paper. He named the image that was able to print on paper Calotype, which in Greek means beautiful picture. People began progressing the concepts of calotypes by changing the types of paper and/or chemicals that gave way to artistic, detailed permanent images on paper.

Stereoscopic photograph

Another type of photography was stereoscopic photography, made popular in the mid 1850's. Stereos copy included “making two images of the same subject, usually with a camera with two lenses placed 2.5 inches (6 cm) apart to simulate the position of the human eyes, and then mounting the positive

prints side by side laterally on a stiff backing”. It was first discovered officially in 1832, by an English physicist by the name of Sir Charles Weathonsone, but later improved upon by Sir David Brewster in 1849(). Sir Brewster created an instrument called a stereoscope from which a stereo-graph can be viewed. The most common subject of stereo-graphs were landscapes, composed acted scenes, and monuments.

As mentioned earlier, photography while primarily and officially started in Europe continued to spread throughout the globe. During the spread, it constantly developed and allowed photography to give way to new forms of artistic expression. Genres that established as a result of photography include portraiture, and photo-journalism, to name a few.

Inventions and Values

During the 1800’s there was a movement to move away from romanticism which had been popular during the first half of the 1800’s and move toward a period in time that became known as “realism”. Realism began in France and spread throughout Europe and the United States. The driving force behind “realism” was the desire for realist’s to move away from the customary style of art, buck the Academy, they were individualistic. The world was changing the out dated style of painting was becoming obsolete. There were outside influences that changed the way society viewed everyday life. The industrial revolution brought about many changes. Machines were invented that increased productivity, saved time and made everyday life easier. For example, the first sewing machine was invented in France around 1830. The first reaping machine was invented in 1831; this allowed farmers to harvest crops such as wheat much faster. The economy was doing well, with increased productivity more goods could be made, which resulted in more goods to sell, therefore, higher earnings. Transportation improved, shipping goods could be done by boat, then by train and then by steam engine. Realist’s represented everyday life, by using real people as the subjects of their paintings performing their everyday routines. One of the first realist paintings was a large painting which measured 10 by 22 feet. It was called The Burial at Ornans (1849) painted by Gustave Courbet. Instead of hiring models for the painting he painted the actual friends and family who attended his great-uncles funeral service. Courbet’s painting was controversial; it showed the harsh realities of life. See photo below in examples.

With the invention of photography people were able to capture images that were able to be reproduced and were less expensive than a painting.

Influences

Realism also influenced articles that were written and circulated among the towns people. These articles contained lithograph engravings created by Honore Daumier. An example of a famous lithograph, titled Rue Transnonain, le 15 April 1834, showed the dead bodies of an innocent man, woman and child killed by the French government. See photo below in examples.

In response to the Industrial Revolution in Europe in the late 1800’s environmentalism developed. Prior to this there were no rules or regulations in place to prevent factories from dumping waste into the water and spewing smoke into the air. Conservation groups began to form and demand that there be regulations put in place to preserve and protect the land.

Key Players

Early Photography enjoyed several influential individuals that played key roles in the development and growth of photography in the early 1800’s including Thomas Wedgewood, Nicephore Niepce, Henry Fox Talbot, and Louis Daguerre.

Thomas Wedgewood started working on what was silver nitrate to capture images referenced as “Silver pictures”. These experiments influenced work by Humphry Dave after the two met in 1802 though it is not known if they were able to create images that were permanent after exposure to light.

Nicephore Niepce made several contributions to the period between 1816 and 1827 including providing the Daugerreotype process(which is partner  Louis Daguerre, after Niepce passing, fine-tuned to reduce exposure time), improving on Thomas Wedgewood and Humphry Dave’s work by creating negatives, negative photographs of images on paper coated in silver nitrate. While he was successful in creating the negatives his inability to perfect them led him to change mediums to metal and glass and in 1822 created the first permanent photograph. He also went on to capture the earliest known Nature Photograph from the mid 1820’s.

Henry Fox Talbot was another key player of this age coming into play in early to mid-1830’s. Still working with silver chloride when others had previously abandoned the substance due to unsuccessful attempts, he was about to create negatives using the silver chloride and the negative/positive process still used today. After his success with silver chloride his “Photogenic Drawing” processed was introduced to the masses, though he did not end there and in fact patented and improved upon previous exposure time needed to process with his Calotype process.

Examples of the work

View from the Window at Le Gras, 1826–27 (manually enhanced version)	Point de vue du Gras by Niépce, 1826	Lightning 1882
Gustave Courbet - A Burial at Ornans - Google Art Project	Honoré Daumier - Rue Transnonain, April 15, 1834 - WGA5966	William Henry Fox Talbot, by John Moffat, 1864

External Links

http://www.cycleback.com/1800s/earlyphotos.htm

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/adag/hd_adag.htm

https://www.britannica.com/technology/photography

History of photography

http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/firstphotograph/

http://www.photo-museum.org/photography-history/