The daguerreotype and the invention of photography
London, bridge and boat over the Thames River by GROS Jean-Baptiste-Louis (1793 - 1870)
PORTRAIT D’HONORÉ DE BALZAC. BISSON Louis-Auguste (1814 - 1876) © Photo RMN-Grand Palais (Institut de France) - Gérard Blot
I found this article very interesting about the invention of the photography. On August 19, 1839, during an official session at the Institut de France, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851), a Parisian theater decorator, disclosed the first photographic process he had managed to develop by taking advantage of the research of his associate, Nicéphore Niépce. Nicknamed "daguerreotype", this process consisted in fixing the positive image obtained in the camera oscura on a copper plate coated with a silver emulsion and developed with iodine vapors. Allowing for the first time a direct and precise reproduction of reality, this invention was immediately welcomed by the entire scientific community and crossed borders in September 1839, meeting with great success abroad. In France, the impact of the process was such that the State decided in 1839 to purchase the patent and place it in the public domain.
The multiple uses of the daguerreotype
Initially restricted to the still-life field, due to the length of exposure times, the daguerreotype received numerous improvements as early as the 1840s: while image stability and plate sensitivity were enhanced, exposure time decreased considerably, from about fifteen minutes in clear weather in 1839 to about one minute. Daguerreotype portraits now became possible, leading to the multiplication of workshops specializing in this type of shooting in Paris. Several of them stood out in particular: let us mention the Bisson brothers, who accompanied the beginnings of daguerreotypy, making portraits in a few seconds as early as 1841. Their Parisian studio saw many celebrities, among them Honoré de Balzac, whose portrait, executed in May 1842, can be attributed to Louis-Auguste Bisson (1814-1876). This photograph is doubly famous because it is the only authenticated photographic portrait of the writer and the oldest precisely dated print from Bisson's studio. This portrait, which clearly stands out from the stereotypical production of the time, depicts the model in an unconventional bust pose, with one hand resting at heart level on the wide-open shirt, the head slightly skewed. The fact that Balzac does not look at the lens reflects his mistrust of the new process - he lent it a magical character and feared that it would deprive him of his carnal envelope.
The daguerreotype was also used for other purposes, especially for outdoor shots. Many amateur travellers thus embarked on the adventure, among them Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey and, above all, Baron Louis Gros (1793-1870). Painter and diplomat by profession, the baron practiced daguerreotypy during his travels abroad, because he saw in the new process the opportunity for a "mathematical" reproduction of reality. His views are distinguished by their technical mastery, balanced composition and exceptional luminosity, such as the one of the Bridges and Boats on the Thames, taken during the 1851 Universal Exhibition in London, where the reflections of the water and the shades of the sky are admirably translated thanks to the shimmering of the daguerreotype plate.
The daguerreotype, mirror of nature
These two examples of daguerreotype photography show that the invention aroused a real excitement among a cultivated public of intellectuals and artists attracted by its multiple possibilities of recording reality. Replacing engraving, the daguerreotype offered by its unconditional fidelity to reality a new way of seeing the world, more accurate and free of any reworking. Thanks to the technique of framing, it also made it possible to bring out certain details or, on the contrary, to place the objects in their environment, as in the case of urban views. Tackling a vast repertoire of subjects, the daguerreotypists thus paved the way for a new kind of photography called documentary photography, which has a great future ahead of it. However, the success of the daguerreotype was ephemeral: from its birth, many criticisms were leveled at it, in particular the slowness of the shots, the static aspect of the models and the shimmering of the plate. In addition, the heavy and bulky photographic equipment was unsuitable for outdoor shooting. These defects explain why the daguerreotype was abandoned in the 1850s in favor of new negative processes that allowed to obtain a reproducible, instantaneous and fine image.
Original article by Charlotte DENOËL, « Le daguerréotype », Histoire par l'image [en ligne], consulté le 23 novembre 2020.
