Here it is – the very first photograph to survive to this day. It was taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826. Its author was of aristocratic lineage, and who else but aristocrats or adventurers could afford to engage in such labor-intensive and unprofitable pursuits as science in the early 19th century. His father served at the royal court and was an advisor to Louis V, while his mother came from a family of well-known lawyers.
Joseph Nicéphore was born on March 7, 1765, in the Burgundian town of Chalon-sur-Saône. The family prepared the young man for a spiritual career, he studied oratory, but the French Revolution changed these plans. In May 1792, Niépce and his older brother enlisted in military service in the revolutionary army. His military career lasted briefly; by 1795, he resigned due to health issues. He served as a city official in Nice, got married, and in 1801, left public service to focus on the family business. There are suggestions that Niépce had to leave his government position due to his too liberal handling of city finances.
Returning to his hometown, Niépce settled with his younger brother Claude; both were passionate about science and invention, and having sufficient wealth, they could fully devote themselves to this pursuit. Joseph became fascinated with the idea of reproducing images in 1816. He began with the recently discovered lithography and spent considerable effort and resources searching for lithographic stone in his native region but never found it. There was another problem – Niépce did not know how to draw. The inventor then decided to try to capture images on other materials.
For several years, he experimented with metals and gases, which he placed in a camera obscura, but achieved no results and only severely burned his hand.
In 1822, Niépce began experiments with Syrian asphalt. The camera obscura was not present in his first experiments. Powdered asphalt was dissolved in lavender oil; Niépce coated glass with this mixture, then took an engraving, oiled the uncolored sections for greater transparency, and applied the paper to the glass. After several hours of exposure, the glass plate was processed with a mixture of lavender oil and kerosene; in the unexposed areas, the asphalt washed away, resulting in a very blurred but permanent image. To produce multiple copies from the developed original image, it was necessary to turn it into an engraving plate through etching. This is exactly what Niépce saw as his goal – “engraving” pictures from nature: “this is undoubtedly the most important application of the discovery I am engaged in.” He called such engraving, largely inheriting from lithography, heliography (meaning “sun writing”).
In the same year of 1822, Niépce placed an asphalt-coated plate in a camera obscura and obtained an image of a set table. Apparently, this moment should be considered the world’s first photograph, if we believe Niépce, since the picture has not survived.
But “View from the Window at Le Gras” from 1826, the exposure of which lasted about 8 hours, has survived to our days. The house from whose window the photograph was taken is now Niépce’s museum.
Money was becoming increasingly scarce; Niépce was fully aware of the commercial value of his invention and feared most that the technology could be stolen. He wanted to obtain a patent without revealing the details of the technology, which he attempted to do in 1827 by presenting his report to the Royal Society of London.