May 23, 2009

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce – View from the Window at Le Gras.

Taken in about 1827 using a process that Niépce called, Heliography (héliographie)

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In 1827, Niépce travelled to London via Paris, visiting the engraver Augustin Lemaître (1797-1870) and Louis Daguerre, the former already a colleague, and the latter soon to be his partner. Although Niépce attempted to interest King George IV, the Royal Academy, and the Royal Society in his héliographie, his inability to market the invention properly, internecine politics in the Royal Society, and the absence abroad of both Sir John Herschel and Henry Talbot at the time ensured his failure. He dejectedly returned home, leaving behind the picture known as View from the Study window (Point de vue du Gras à Saint-Loup de Varennes; 1827). In 1829, Niépce brought his experiments and chemical knowledge into a partnership with Daguerre that was, with Daguerre’s recognition of the latent image, to lead directly to the invention of the daguerreotype.

posted by in history, nineteenth century (sorry cindy)™, photographs, photography, technology | * | 15 comments 

comments

  1. Lucy Foley on May 23rd, 2009 at 2:24 pm

    Yeah, Niépce is the historically forgotten half of the Daguerrotype partnership. I suppose they thought that Niépcetype wouldn’t fly. Pity.

  2. Phil Bebbington on May 23rd, 2009 at 2:26 pm

    It certainly doesn’t roll off of the tongue!

  3. Lucy Foley on May 23rd, 2009 at 2:30 pm

    No, Niépce dropped dead in 1833! That’s what happened! He was just a pawn in Daguerre’s game! Then there was this whole rivalry with Fox Talbot and the race to patent. It was a mean game in the genesis of photography.

  4. Phil Bebbington on May 23rd, 2009 at 2:54 pm

    I did some work for the Royal Photographic Society back in the day. They asked me on one occasion to get all of Fox Talbot’s work out and try and sort it out! what a glorious head fuck that was.

  5. Lucy Foley on May 23rd, 2009 at 2:56 pm

    So how far did you get?

  6. Phil Bebbington on May 23rd, 2009 at 2:59 pm

    well, I got to handle it all and attempted to put it in some kind of order based on the records that they had. It was wonderful to handle such things.

  7. Lucy Foley on May 23rd, 2009 at 3:01 pm

    Did you see patterns of development (pungirl returns!) through the archive as it went on? It must have been wonderful to have the opportunity to look at this stuff in such a dedicated way.

  8. Phil Bebbington on May 23rd, 2009 at 3:04 pm

    It was good to see images that filled in the gaps between the images we often see in books – also experiments that were no more than blocks of light and shade. The whole process was wonderful, the year I worked there with the collection was just outstanding.

  9. Lucy Foley on May 23rd, 2009 at 3:10 pm

    Yeah. Yeah, I dig that. Seeing the etudes, the finger work, the sketches, the scribbles. Excellent.

  10. Barry on May 23rd, 2009 at 4:38 pm

    Phil,

    Where can one see these blocks of light studies? Are they on the web anywhere? And where are they physically. That sounds like an amazing experience.

  11. Lucy Foley on May 23rd, 2009 at 4:45 pm

    I think you have to be physically with that kind of material.

  12. Phil Bebbington on May 23rd, 2009 at 6:12 pm

    Barry – not long after I stopped working at the RPS the whole collection was moved to the National Media Museum in Bradford http://is.gd/CLct I have no idea what proportion of the Fox Talbot collection is accessible – I would imagine only selected bits although I could be wrong.

  13. Sheila Ryan on May 24th, 2009 at 11:30 am

    This conversation warmed the cockles of my archivist’s heart.

  14. Lucy Foley on May 24th, 2009 at 12:28 pm

    Well that is good. I have heard that it is almost impossible to archive without having warm cockles also.

  15. Sheila Ryan on May 24th, 2009 at 2:26 pm

    The best of us are all warm-cockley, I know.

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