Joseph Nicéphore Niépce's Heliograph Photography
(This above picture is an image in public domain since its copyright is expired. Few countries have copyright terms longer than 70 years. It was obtained from the National Library of France.)
The picture above is the one the oldest type of photograph made by French inventor
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1825. It is a 17th century Flemish engraving image representing a man leading his horse. This heliographic engraving is a technique preceding the modern photography process.
Heliography was a term first used by inventor Niépce to refer to the process utilized to obtain the first permanent picture in the history of Photography.
Heliography [Helio- + -graphy: description of the sun - Webster 1913] is a term used to denote an engraving process in which an image is obtained by photographic means. It was a method consisting in exposing a metal plate coated with a preparation asphalt in a camera or under a design. The plate was then treated with a suitable solvent. The parts of the film which light strikes become insoluble and a permanent image is formed which can be etched upon the plate by use of acid.
This pioneer photographic process was Niepce's invention. After several attempts to reproduce his first photographic impression he prepared a brass plate with Syrian asphalt, which has the property of becoming white and insoluble when exposed to light. The preparation had to be done in a "Dark Room". This plate was then exposed or covered with an image whose black portions did not allow any light to shine through. The exposed areas then became insoluble whereas the dark areas could be easily dissolved with oil. The resulting plate was then etched by means of normal etching process and his first photography was then obtained.
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce's Biographic Chronological Table
- 1765 Birth of Joseph Niépce in Chalon-sur-Saône (he will change his name to Nicephore later). His father was a King counselor and deposit collector for Chalonnais. He had one sister & two brothers.
- 1786 Joseph studied in Angers at the Oratorian Brothers. Physics and Chemistry were his passions.
- 1788 Niépce leaves the Oratoire and enlists in the National Guard in Chalon-sur-Saône. He signs his letters using Nicephore as a first name.
- 1789 French Revolution took place.
- 1792 He enlisted in the Revolutionary Army (south of France & Sardinia campaigns).
- 1794 Nicephore leaves the Army and lives in Nice. He gets married. His elder brother Claude comes to join him.
- 1795 Birth of his son Isidore.
- 1797 Travels to Sardinia with his family and his brother. It is believed that during this journey Nicephore and his brother first had the idea of Photography.
- 1798 Back in Nice, the two brothers perform their first inventors’ projects and work toward the development of a new engine principle based on air expansion during an explosion.
- 1801 Nicephore, his family, and Claude travel back to Chalon-sur Saône where they manage the familial estate that had been managed by Nicephore Niépce’s mother since her husband’s death in 1785.
-1807 The two brothers obtain a ten-year patent, signed by Napoleon, for their engine, which they name Pyreolophore. It is the first internal combustion engine in the world. A boat model two meters long goes upstream on the Saone River against the current with this engine.
- 1807 – 1809 Elaboration of a project for a hydraulic pump to replace the Marly machine that provided water to the Château de Versailles.
-1811: Woad cultivation proliferates since it becomes a substitute for indigo, scarce because of the Continental System.
- 1816 A year before their patent’s expiration, Claude leaves Chalon-sur-Saone for Paris, then England in 1817 to try to exploit their invention.
- 1816 to 1818 Left alone, Nicephore begins research on the fixation of projected images on the back of camerae obscurae. First experiments and first failures; he searches for quarries of calcareous stone around Chalon-sur-Saone to find stones appropriate for lithography.
- 1818 He realize that an image remains stable (fixed) for three months.
Nicephore builds himself a dandy horse that he improves with an adjustable saddle.
- 1822 Reproduction of a copy of a drawing by the single action of light on a glass plate coated with Judea bitumen (portrait of the Pope Pius VII).
- 1823 Reproduction of drawings by contact on Judea bitumen varnish.
- 1824 Niépce achieves “Points of view with the camera obscura “(photographs) on lithographic stones. The exposure time is about five days.
- 1824 to 1826 He discovers that images etched on copper plate, by treating the bitumen images with the aqua fortis method. Niépce resorts to a Parisian etcher, Augustin Lemaitre, to advise him and production of prints on paper from these etched plates.
- In 1825, Niépce also requests from Vincent and Charles Chevalier, opticians in Paris, all sorts of lenses to perfect his camera obscura. This is also the year of his son’s wedding with Eugénie de Champmartin.
- 1826 He obtains images etched on tin. He extracts starch from a gourd called “giraumont”. Production of a textile fiber that can be woven from a plant called Syrian milkweed.
- 1827 Point of view on an unetched tin plate (the only preserved image was achieved by Niépce with a camera obscura that is representative of this step of his research).
- 1828 Niépce achieved unetched images on polished silver plates by exposing the latent image to iodine vapors.
- 1829 Partnership with Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, a camera obscura specialist, with the purpose of improving the luminosity and the quality of the images at the camera obscura back.
- 1831 Niépce works on all sorts of resin without positive results.
- 1832 June: New visit by Daguerre at Niépce’s. The partners use as a photosensitive agent a distillant of lavender oil and obtain images in less than 8 hours’ exposure time. Niépce names their process: the Physautotype.
- 1832 November: Daguerre comes back to St-Loup-de-Varennes to work with Niépce on the new process.
- July 5th 1833: Niépce dies suddenly, none of his inventions having being officially acknowledged.
This picture was taken by and creditted to Nicephore Niepce. It was a View from the Window at Le Gras; the first successful permanent photograph created by Nicephore Niepce in 1826.
PHOTOGRAPHER / CREDIT: Joseph Nicephore Niepce
NOTE: It should be self evident to anybody interested in this image that this is a very grainy image with no detail. This was the first image ever permanently fixed as a photographic image, and is of course incredibly historic.
DATE: 1826
STANDARD PRINT SIZES: 8x12 12x18 16x24 20x30
PHOTOGRAPHER / CREDIT: Joseph Nicephore Niepce
NOTE: It should be self evident to anybody interested in this image that this is a very grainy image with no detail. This was the first image ever permanently fixed as a photographic image, and is of course incredibly historic.
DATE: 1826
STANDARD PRINT SIZES: 8x12 12x18 16x24 20x30
Picture courtesy of http://www.mcmahanphoto.com
Bibliographic Resources:
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