OK, I lied a bit. I said the second chapter would be more fun than the first, but it's not more fun. It's kind of sad, actually. This one focuses (yes, pun intended) on Joseph Nicephore Niepce.
You may know him as the man who took the first photograph. But back in his day people knew him as . . . . . actually they didn't know of him at all, really.
After Wedgwood’s efforts around 1800, there was a gap where people weren't working on making images. There was too much other stuff going on. Most of the world was at war for the first 20 years of the new century. The U. S. fought Britain and the Barbary States, while writing the script for Hamilton, the Musical, and buying Louisiana. The British fought the Spanish and then the French, the Russians fought the Persians and then the Turks, and Napoleon fought basically everyone in Europe at least twice. Most Caribbean, Central, and South American colonies revolted. The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire formed. Also, the steamboat, electric battery, gaslights and locomotives were invented. Beethoven wrote some symphonies, Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, and trumpets got valves.
Locomotion No. 1 On display for many years at Darlington Bank Top station. Image by Gillett's Crossing circa 2012 placed in public domain.
You didn't know that about trumpets, did you?
Le Cardinal d
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Niepce wasn’t just making contact prints, however. He replaced the ground glass viewing screen of his camera obscura with bitumen coated plates. By 1824, he had made an image using a camera obscura on a limestone plate (limestone was often used for lithography), but the exposure time was ‘5 days of good sunlight’.
“View from the Window at Le Gras” Nicophore Niepce 1827. Original plate on the right (Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin); Helmut Gernsheim’s ‘retouched version’ circa 1952, on the left. Both images from the public domain.
By 1827, he had created the better known “View from the Window at Le Gras” made with Bitumen of Judea coating a pewter plate. The image is commonly said to have taken at least 8 hours of exposure, largely because the sun exposes the entire image from left to right. At least some researchers now believe that, like his earlier images, the exposure time may have been several days.
Another Aside
Helmut Gernsheim was a German / English photographer and art historian who assembled the world’s most important collections of early photographs and literature; another person who’s life would make a good book. Niepce gave The Window at Le Gras to English illustrator Francis Buaer, along with other heliographs and his notes. Bauer died in 1840 and the images were sold from his estate, occasionally shown as curiosities, and disappeared entirely around 1905. Helmut Gernsheim found the original 'View from the Window at Le Gras' plate and purchased it in 1952.
He had copies made at the Kodak Research Laboratory, then heavily retouched one of those copies by hand. Only that copy was exhibited or published for many years. In the 1960s, when Gernsheim donated the original plate, it was found that the original had been damaged (note the 3 dimples in the image above). For whatever reasons, Gernsheim apparently didn’t want anyone to know about the damage, which occurred during his possession.
Another image, of a set table, was made using a glass plate, which created a negative. The plate no longer exists, but a halftone print of the image still does. The date is not known (speculated to be around 1830), but the improved quality of the image shows Niepce had refined his techniques significantly. From his notes and other information, though, it is known the exposures still took hours in good sunlight.
Still Life with Bottles. Joseph Nicephore Niepce. Lithograph print from Heliograph. Image is in the public domain.
Niepce had other things going on, too. . .
In 1826, Niepce received some bizarre correspondence from (and about) his brother Claude. Among other things, Claude claimed he had invented a perpetual motion machine and requested more money for its development; but Claude already had control of the Niepce bank accounts. Niepce travelled to London in 1827 where he found Claude had squandered the family fortune, had become insane (it’s unclear which event preceded which) and was physically quite unwell.
While in England, Niepce called on Francis Bauer, a well-known illustrator, and showed him his heliographs hoping he would arrange a presentation to the Royal Society, and perhaps obtain funding for Niepce’s work. The presentation never happened, partly because Niepce was hesitant to reveal his methods, but mostly because the Royal Society was in some disarray. Humphrey Davy (who had worked with Wedgwood, and would certainly have been interested) was the President of the Royal Society, but was both physically ill and unpopular. There was ugly infighting at the Society, Davy was forced to resign, and the Society was basically not functioning during Niepce's time in London.
2021-8-8 17:00