Hercules Florence, the isolated inventor of photography

Hercule Florence, self-portrait, c. 1875
source: http://www.mnemocine.com.br/fotografia/historia_foto.htm

"Antoine Hercule Romuald Florence (1804–March 27, 1879) was a French-Brazilian painter and inventor, known as the isolate inventor of photography in Brazil, three years before Daguerre (but six years after Nicéphore Niépce), using the matrix negative/positive.

According to Kossoy, who examined Florence's notes, he referred to his process, in French, as photographie in 1834, at least four years before John Herschel coined the English word photography." (from: Hercules Florence - Wikipedia article)

"The notion of simultaneous invention - that two or more people can develop the same concept at about the same time - was mentioned by Florence and by another of photography's pioneer, William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877)" observes M. W. Marien: "Simultaneous invention makes it difficult to construct a linear chronology of photography." (Marien, Mary Warner -Photography, A Cultural History , New York: 2002)

In the case of Florence, it brings into the panorama of the emergence of photography not only the solitary inventor, but a peripheral region, distant from the advanced centers of science and technology in the 19th century, in the margin of Modernity itself.

Comments

WL said…

Look my book: "Les trois vies d'Hercule Florence", William Luret, éditions JC Lattès 2001

April 21, 2008 at 1:58 PM

Group f/64 Manifesto (1932)

Ansel Adams by Dorothea Lange Group f/64 Manifesto The name of this Group is derived from a diaphragm number of the photographic lens. It signifies to a large extent the qualities of clearness and definition of the photographic image which is an important element in the work of members of this Group. The chief object of the Group is to present in frequent shows what it considers the best contemporary photography of the West; in addition to the showing of the work of its members, it will include prints from other photographers who evidence tendencies in their work similar to that of the Group. Group f/64 is not pretending to cover the entire of photography or to indicate through its selection of members any deprecating opinion of the photographers who are not included in its shows. There are great number of serious workers in photography whose style and technique does not relate to the metier of the Group. Group f/64 limits its members and invitational names to those worke...

Survey photography and the landscape in 19th century America

Carleton Watkins, The Vernal Fall, from the Yosemite Book, 1868 Carleton Watkins. Yosemite Falls and the Merced River. Yosemite National Park. View from the Sentinel Dome, Yosemite, by Carleton Watkins As Ian Jeffrey observed (1), 19th century American landscape photography recorded "virgin" nature in two complementary "modes": in the first, contemplating the novelty, and the magnitude of its subject, the photographer documents vast vistas from the distance, not simply physical distance per se but a properly visual distance appropriated to handle the unique, novel forms of the subject. In the second, photographic vision "tames" nature and organizes the natural panorama by way of an aesthetic code akin to that of the contemporary landscape painters. Survey photography by Weed, Watkins or by Muybridge, O' Sullivan, and others, can be seen as a kind of "second" conquest o...

The Photography of Everyday Life: Paul Martin (1864-1942)

Blind beggar at the cattle market, c.1890 Paul Martin British, 1864 - 1942 Platinum print 18 x 22.8cm Dancing to the organ, Lambeth, 1893 Platinum print 10 x 7.5cm The Old Empire Platinum print 17.5 x 23.5cm Southend Beach, 1905 Yarmouth sands, 1892 Link: Victoria and Albert Museum: Exploring Photography

Introduction to the History of Photography

Search This Blog