Part One: Photography’s
Double Invention
Chapter 1: The Origins
of Photography
Pre Photography: The Roots
What was necessary for the invention of
photography? "
A light tight box (camera)
Originally the camera obscura is used
Lenses
Available and manufactured by the Dutch for
telescopes and microscopes since the 1600s
Light-sensitive substances
from the early 1600s, scientists knew that
silver was sensitive to light
• Camera Obscura
The Camera Obscura
•  Literally “dark room”
•  Based on the principle that a small hole in a box
produces an upside down image on the side of the box
opposite the hole (pinhole camera)
 Manufactured by the Dutch starting in the 17th century
  With lenses and mirrors to turn the image right side up
  Used as a drawing aid for artists so they could get
perspective correct
Painting called “The Concert” by the Dutch artist Vermeer,
in which Vermeer uses the camera obscura to create correct perspective.
• Painting by Vermeer called View of Delft also using the
camera obscura for perspective. Vermeer emphasizes the “circles
of confusion” from the lens of the camera obscura.
• Camera Lucida
• Mechanical aid to help artists draw
from nature more effectively
Camera Lucida
•  The camera lucida, another devise that would
help artists to draw from nature, is available from
around 1807.
•  This is called the “light room” or camera lucida,
instead of dark room or camera obscura
•  It consists of a prism with two silvered sided set
on a rod
•  You were supposed to be able to see the scene
you were looking at and the paper at the same
time so you could trace the scene easily on the
paper.
Cape Town and Table Bay from just above Platte Klip Gorge,
Table Mountain, Feb. 7. 1838, Sir John Herschel (1792-1871)
camera lucida sketch
• Johann Kaspar Lavater, Silhouette machine, c. 1780
• Silhouette or shadow drawing
Silhouette or shadow drawing
•  The middle class tried to define itself as a distinct social
class by buying these portraits.
•  People would sit in front of a sheet of paper with either
candle light or sunlight casting a shadow of their profile
onto the paper which the artist would then trace.
•  The artist might cut the profile out and use it as a guide
to cut out their portrait from dark paper or just color in the
outline with black ink.
Silhouette or shadow drawing
•  This creates a very simple portrait- but one that
emphasizes the actual shape of a person’s head, nose,
personal features...
•  These portraits emphasize a sense of individualismindividual accomplishment among the bourgeoisie, or
new middle class.
•  And obviously, a person could buy a silhouette portrait
for much less than an oil painting.
•  So they appealed to the bourgeoisie in this way too.
They could afford them. And they were made much more
quickly than a painted portrait.
• Silhouette vs. oil painting
Compare these two types of portraits:
Which one do you think cost more money?
• Usually portraits of the aristocracy
were very ornate, very fancy, and
•  the people were dressed up in
very fancy clothes, with jewelry,
• lots of fancy furniture and props.
They were also very idealized- not
natural at all
• Portrait of Joseph Nicéphore Niépce by
Leonard-Francois Berger, 1854
• Niépce, View from the Window at Gras, 1826, heliograph, 8 hour exposure
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce
•  Well educated but his economic prospects were
disturbed by the French Revolution
•  Invented an engine to run river boats
•  Was intrigued by lithography, but not good at
drawing so tried to invent another way to make
multiple copies of the same image
•  Invented a direct positive photographic process
called heliography
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce
•  In 1826 produced what we consider to be the first
photograph- View from the Window at Gras
•  8 hour exposure
•  See the sun move across the image
•  Tried to market this process unsuccessfully
•  Met Daguerre and they formed a partnership to
collaborate on inventing a photographic process
•  Died unexpectedly in 1833 and Daguerre took his
research and used it to invent his own process
• Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre
• Daguerreotype portrait of Daguerre by Jean-Baptiste Sabatier-Blot, 1844
• Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre Landscape with Gothic Ruins Diorama 1821
• Daguerre Still Life (Interior of a cabinet of curiosities), 1837
• Daguerre View of the Boulevard du Temple, c. 1839, daguerreotype
• Louis Daguerre, "The Louvre from the Left Bank of the Seine"
• daguerreotype, 1839
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre
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Did not have much formal education
Sagacious business man
Outgoing personality, ambitious
Owned a successful theater business called the
Diorama- special effects/lights
Works to invent a photographic process
Figures out he has a latent image
Partners with Niepce
Invents his own process called the
Daguerreotype (named after himself, of course!)
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre
•  In 1838, Daguerre is getting ready to make his
results public.
•  He lobbies prominent scientists to back him up
so he will be taken seriously.
•  He meets up with the astronomer and politician
Francois Arago.
•  At this point in time, the French government
feels that it had a mission to support French
intellectual life by funding science research and
inventions.
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre
•  So Arago goes to the French Academy of
Science with Daguerre’s research.
•  Because the process for the daguerreotype is
not scientifically complicated, and could be
copied relatively easily, Arago suggests that the
French government give Daguerre a pension for
life- ie. a monthly stipend for the rest of his life,
and then they would publish the daguerreotype
process so anyone who wanted to could use it.
•  On January 7, 1839, Arago announces
Daguerre’s process to the French Academy of
Science and it is announced in the press.
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Construction of a daguerreotype: hinged, velvetlined case, plate, frame, matte, and glass
•  the daguerreotype does not look or feel
like a photograph.
•  its image rests on highly polished copper
plate and its brilliant mirror like silver
surface provides unparalleled visual
depths this attribute also makes viewing
problematic.
•  the daguerreotype's greatest technical
advantage is its ability to render incredible
detail.
Daguerreotype
•  Direct positive on metal plate: only ONE copy is
made. If you want additional copies you have to
take them again.
•  Copper sheet plated with silver is highly polished,
sensitized with iodine and placed into a camera
obscura, exposed to light, exposed to mercury
and washed with sodium chloride and then water
•  Early exposure times are 4 to 5 minutes
Daguerreotype
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Pros:
Very sharp, lots of detail, people loved this
Metal plate is sturdy
Highly mirrored surface, ghostly vision
Cons:
Does not have a full tonal range (no whites)
since it is on a piece of metal
•  Does not have a negative, so you can’t make
multiple prints
•  The surface is very shiny so it scratches easily,
placed in cases to preserve them
• Bayard, Self-Portrait as a Drowned Man, 1840,
• direct paper positive
“The body you see is that of Monsieur Bayard…The Academy,
the King, and all who have seen his pictures admired them,
just as you do. Admiration brought him prestige,
but not a sou (dollar). The Government, which gave
Mr. Daguerre so much, said it could do nothing for Mr. Bayard,
and the wretch drowned himself.”
• Hippolyte Bayard
• Hippolyte Bayard
• Creates the
illusion that the
statues are
floating
• Hippolyte Bayard: Self-Portrait with Plaster Casts, 1850
Hippolyte Bayard
•  Invents another direct positive process
•  His process is on paper and doesn’t have a
name
•  Also meets Arago who convinces him to wait to
announce his invention
•  Because he waits, he loses out credit to
Daguerre
•  He gets angry and makes his image- Self
Portrait of a Drowned Man
•  Calls into question whether photography “tells
the truth”
•  Goes on to be part of the Historic Monument
Commission
William
Henry Fox
Talbot
(1800-1877)
William Henry Fox Talbot,
Camera lucida drawing of the
Terrace at the Villa Medici,
October 5, 1833
“When first made the squares of glass, about 200
in number could be counted, with the help of a lens.”
William Henry Fox Talbot,
Latticed Window Taken with the Camera Obscura, Aug. 1835.
Photogenic drawing negative, mounted on blackened paper
• William Henry Fox Talbot • Leaf with Serrated Edge c. 1839
• Photogenic drawing negative
• William Henry Fox Talbot,
• botanical drawing, 1839, photogenic drawing
• Photograms
William Henry Fox Talbot,
The Open Door, 1844, from The Pencil of Nature,
salt print from a calotype negative.
William Henry Fox Talbot,
Articles of China, plate 3 from Pencil of Nature,
1844-46, calotype
• William Henry Fox Talbot, Lacock Abbey
Photogenic (light-caused) drawing process
•  Talbot used a photogram process for his photogenic
drawings.
•  In other words, he placed an actual object, in this case a
leaf, down on the light-sensitized paper and exposed it to
the sun or to a light source.
•  This is a negative process and what this means is that
where the light could reach the paper it turned the silver
dark.
• Photogram
Photogenic (light-caused) drawing process
•  So he would place this leaf on the paper and where the
sun could reach the paper- ie. where there was no leaf to
cover the paper, the paper would turn dark.
•  Then he had to again fix the image so it didn’t continue
to turn dark.
•  He discovered that a salt water solution would stop the
development.
•  Images like this are called photograms and they are still
made today.
• Photogram
Calotype Photograph (salt print)
•  Sensitized paper by soaking it in sodium
chloride and then in silver nitrate
•  He put the paper in a camera and
exposed it
•  He used sodium chloride again to stop the
print from over exposing
Calotype Photograph (salt print)
•  This first print is called a “negative”
because the tones are reversed
•  He sandwiched the negative with another
piece of sensitized paper to create a
positive image
•  He could use the negative to create many
identical positive image
•  Thus, the calotype process is the basis for
modern photographic reproduction
William Henry Fox Talbot, An Oak Tree in Winter,
Negative and positive images
Talbot’s photographic studio
Calotype (salt print)
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Positive/Negative process
Calotype negative is made of paper
It produces a print that is soft
Not a lot of detail
Lots of dramatic shadows
You can see the texture of the paper in the
print, looks more painterly
Calotype (salt print)
•  Pros:
•  You can make multiple prints from the
negative
•  It has a full tonal range from white to black
•  Less expensive than a daguerreotype
•  Cons
•  Not as sharp as the daguerreotype
•  Paper, tears easily
William Henry Fox Talbot
•  Talbot, who was British, knew Sir John Herschel.
•  He had had success as early as 1833 and 1834
in fixing a photographic image.
•  At the time he heard about Daguerre’s
announcement he had been about to announce
his discovery to the British Royal Society.
•  He didn’t know if his process was the same as
Daguerre’s or different.
•  Talbot, unlike Daguerre who was not welleducated, had been educated at Cambridge and
lived on his family estate (at Lacock Abbey).
Sir John Herschel
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Early inventor of photography
Was in contact with William Henry Fox Talbot
Invented the cyanotype process
This blue process is used to make both
photograms and photographs
What is the difference between a photogram and
a photograph?
The cyanotype process is still used today
Herschel believed that photography should be a
democratic process- available to everyone
He helped young photographers- especially
Anna Atkins and Julia Margaret Cameron
Sir John Herschel, Woman with Harp