Introduction to the History of Photography

[Windmills, Montmartre], 1839 Hippolyte Bayard (French, 1801–1887) Direct positive print 3 3/8 x 3 15/16 in. (8.5 x 10 cm) Gilman Collection, Gift of The Howard Gilman Foundation, 2005 (2005.100.32) source: Metmuseum  Hippolyte Bayard French, 1847 Salt print 6 1/2 x 4 13/16 in. source: Getty Hippolyte Bayard: Self-Portrait as a Drowned Man, 1840 (Direct Positive Print) 1840 Hippolyte Bayard ’s (20 January 1807 – 14 May 1887) role as a pioneer of photography, both as a photographer and as inventor, was overshadowed by Daguerre’ s support by the scientific establishment of his time and by the French government’s monetary rewards for his public disclosure of the Daguerreotype process.  Bayard’s commentary of “protest” on his situation as a “forgotten” photographer and pioneer of photography is expressed in one of his most famous and intriguing images the Self-portrait as a drowned man - drowned by indifference and neglect, as he writes to explain the p...

Sketch of Lake Como - Talbot - 1833 Drawing created using a Camera Lucida source: http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/1_p/1_photographers_talbot_smm_sketch.htm "(In) October, 1833, I was amusing myself on the lovely shores of the Lake of Como in Italy, taking sketches with a Camera Lucida, or rather, I should say, attempting to make them; but with the smallest possible amount of success... After various fruitless attempts I laid aside the instrument and came to the conclusion that its use required a previous knowledge of drawing which unfortunately I did not possess. I then thought of trying again a method which I had tried many years before. This method was to take a Camera Obscura and to throw the image of the objects on a piece of paper in its focus - fairy pictures, creations of a moment, and destined as rapidly to fade away... It was during these thoughts that the idea occurred to me... how charming it would be if it were possible to cause these natural images to imprint...

W. Fox Talbot The Open Door Salt print from a calotype negative, April 1844. 18.8 x 23.1 cm. source: http://foxtalbot.dmu.ac.uk/resources/opendoor.html " The Open Door reveals a telling interest in the artistic treatment of the mundane." The image's "picturesque dimension suggests the inventor's familiarity with examples of Dutch genre painting of the 17 th century" Rosenblum , Naomi - World History of Photography, 1997 ( page 31) It is interesting to note that , as Rosenblum herself explains, "soft definition", that is the "blurry" or "fuzzy" characteristics of the calotype image, contrasted the calotype print to the finesse of detail and sharpness of the daguerreotype. Talbot in fact referred to the effects of his early "photogenic drawings" as " Rembrandtish " ( Rosenblum , page 29) Although the negative-positive method of Talbot would point the way to future developments of photography, the qua...

"The calotype negative process was sometimes called the Talbotype , after its inventor. It was not Talbot's first photographic process (introduced in 1839), but it is the one for which he became most known. Henry Talbot devised the calotype in the autumn of 1840, perfected it by the time of its public introduction in mid-1841, and made it the subject of a patent (the patent did not extend to Scotland). The base of a calotype negative, rather than the glass or film to which we have become accustomed, was high quality writing paper. The sheet of paper was carefully selected to have a smooth and uniform texture and, wherever possible, to avoid the watermark. The first stage, conducted in candlelight, was to prepare what Talbot called his iodized paper. The paper was washed over with a solution of silver nitrate and dried by gentle heat. When nearly dr...