THE HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Nearly a century and a half ago, France bestowed a wonderful gift on the world: the art of photography. Thanks to a law proposed by the Government and passed by the two Assemblies based on a report by François Arago, secretary to the Academy of Science it was stated that "photography shall bear witness to the lives of men and shall serve as an eye to to scientists. It is the duty of France not to let this be limited to a privileged few but to improve it for all mankind".

This unique gesture has made a considerable contribution when we look at how it has affected our daily lives: we now take family snapshots for granted, along with photographs in newspapers and magazines, the cinema, television and medical research. The images transmitted through satellite have their origin in photography.

Photography has become an essential part of everyday life in all its aspects. We use it in our studies and pastimes and now take it so much for granted that we often forget how important it is.

Photography was discovered by the Frenchman Joseph-Nicéphore Nièpce. He took the first photographic image on the 5th of May, 1826 from the window of. his home in St-Loup-de-Varennes near Chalonsur-Saône. The negative was produced on paper which had been treated and transferred onto paper through direct contact.

When he paid a visit to Kew on an invitation from the botanist Francis Bauer, the secretary of the Royal Society, he took advantage of the occasion to show his pictures to the English academics on the 10th of December, 1827.

He continued alone in his research until the 14th of December, 1829 when he agreed to go into partnership with the Parisian scene painter Jacques-Louis-Mandé Daguerre in order to perfect his invention. Fours years of research followed after which Nièpce died in 1833 leaving his place to his son. Daguerre made some improvements to the procedure and more importantly, managed to awaken the interest of the French authorities to the importance of this invention.

The "Laws of Photography" was signed on the 7th of August, 1839 and on the 19th of the same month, Francois Arago revealed the secrets of photography to representatives from all over the world.

The world was stunned by the discovery: Daguerre's brochure was printed in twenty eight languages; he sent his cameras across the world, signed with his own name as guarantee; he offered to take the first photographs of the monarchs of Europe.

From this point on, several scientists made improvements to the technique. The first improve ment to be made was to find a substance which would reduce the exposure time from a quarter of an hour to five minutes. The first scientifically calculated lens allowing more light into the exposure was produced by Professor Petzval of Vienna.

The first photographic procedure, the daguerreotype, consisted of a picture exposed directly, without any negative, onto a silver-plated sheet of copper. This unique procedure was used from 1839 until around 1855.

The next procedure to be invented was that of using a negative on paper. Nièpce had been experimenting with this method from 1816 but it was only in 1941 that it was patented by the Englishman Fox Talbot under the name of talbotype. The Frenchman Blanquart-Evrard improved Talbot's procedure, making it more practical and calling it the calotype. This method was used for the first photo-reports which were widely distributed.

The final improvement of major significance was the introduction of the collodion process. Taking an idea from the Frenchman Le Gray, the Englishman Frederick Scott Archer combined the best of both the daguerreotype and calotype processes and introduced a process which was to last for the next thirty years. The collodion process was fifteen times quicker than the daguerreotype. The photographer had to sensitise a glass plate which then produced an extremely well-defined image. The disadvantage of the procedure was that the collodion had to be prepared, exposed and developed before drying out. Photographers had to take their dark room, laboratory and products with them when they travelled. The collodion itself was made of nitrocellulose dissolved in alcohol and ether. The first war report to be made using this process was done in the Crimean War in 1853 by the Hungarian Karoly Pap de Szmathmary and continued by the French colonel Langlois and his assistant Marion.

Above: Boulevard du Temple in Paris. Daguerreotype taken by Daguerre around 1838-39 presently held in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich. Taken from Fotografia Creativa by John Hedgecoe. ed. H. Blume Ediciones, Madrid, 1976.

Below: Scene of the Crimean War taken by the Illustrated London News photographer, James Robertson and his assistant Felice Beato, one of the first people to photograph China.

The introduction of gelatin plates in 1880 meant that photography became more readily available to a larger group of people. The dry plates were prepared in factories using gelatin containing silver slats. This marked the beginning of the modern age in photography with a process which is still used in our own time. There has yet to be an inventor who can improve upon this method.

The early period of dry plate photography lasting until the start of the Great War was dominated by French inventors and artists. The increased sensitivity of treated paper meant that cameras could be reduced in size and compared with earlier contraptions which had to be at least the same size as the plates on which the exposures were produced, modern cameras became really ingenious pieces of engineering.

German cameras reigned supreme until the Second World War but following 1945 France came into her own in the manufacture of cameras such as the Foca, Lumière and Semflex. More recently, Japan has dominated the world market in photographic equipment. No matter where the camera is produced, however, each one is a testament to the skill of man. Developments in the field of photographs themselves have not only depended on artistic taste but also on the techniques available: the daguerreotype required an average of five minutes of exposure; the collodion process two minutes while the gelatine dry plate allowed photographs to be taken at night.

After searching for the greatest possible definition in the early part of this century, the Paris School, influenced by the Impressionist school in art, created floué images by printing the pictures with oil-based colours.

Colour printing was invented in 1869 by the Frenchman Louis Ducos du Hauron using three coloured filters. This early process involved three sensitised colour layers in the exposure and formed the basis for modern-day colour printing and the television.

A war reporter on wheels: Roger Fenton, the first English war reporter with his converted wineseller's wagon in which he travelled through the Crimean battle-fields. Employed by the Illustrated London News, he specialised in panoramic views and groups of soldiers having re-ceived instructions from the newspaper to avoid photographing unpleasant scenes. He worked under dreadful conditions, the victim of flies, dust and cholera. His wagon with its enormous quantity of equipment was an easy target for enemy troops. Taken from Fotografia Creativa by John Hedgecoe. ed. H. Blume Ediciones, Madrid, 1976.