Tuesday, 7 January 2014

Photography


Joseph Niepce.

Joseph ‪Nicéphore Niépce was a French inventor who was born in Charlon-sur-Saone in 1765. He was the man who successfully took the first fixed photograph, previous photos would fade away in time because of the exposure to light however he figured it out. Niepce used to experiment with lithography, which then led to him inventing images using a camera obscura. The photos he created that would darken over time were ones that he used silver chloride to produce. Eventually he started using bitumen, which is what he used to take the first fixed photo in natural photography.  He dissolved bitumen in lavender oil; a solvent often used in varnishes, and coated the sheet of pewter with this light capturing mixture. He placed the sheet inside a camera obscura to capture the picture, and eight hours later removed it and washed it with lavender oil to remove the unexposed bitumen.
He began experimenting to set optical images in 1793. Some of his early experiments made images, but they faded very fast. Letters to his sister-in-law around 1816 indicate that he found a way to fix images on paper, but not prevent them from deterioration in light. The earliest known, surviving example of a Niépce photograph (or any other photograph) was created in 1825. Niépce called his process heliography, which literally means "sun writing". The photo is called ‘View from Window at Le Gras’. While Niepce was working on these experiments he shared his findings with his friend Louis Daguerre who was also interested in photography. After Niepce’s death Daguerre carried on Niepce’s processes and experiments and also became a pioneer of photography by inventing the process Daguerrotype as a following addition to Niepce’s findings.
Personally I love this picture because of the pure success it shows. You can imagine how Niepce must of felt when he seen this and it didn’t darken at all. I also like the rustic feel of the picture. The buildings you can see look pretty rough and aged but the effect of photograph emphasizes it with the scratches and blurs. It looks as if this picture has been edited to look decayed but seeing as this is the first ever fixed photo I’m surprised with how clear it is. Over all I think it’s a lovely photo and the tones are so interesting and because this is in black and white the tones are deeper and more eye catching than if it was in colour.



-Paige

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