814 Chapter 30 EUROPE AND AMERICA, 1800 TO 1870T
he earliest photographic processes were the daguerreotype,
named after L.J.M. Daguerre (FIG. 30-50), and the calotype.Da-
guerre was an architect and theatrical set painter and designer. This
background led Daguerre and a partner to open a popular entertain-
ment called the Diorama. Audiences witnessed performances of
“living paintings” created by changing the lighting effects on a
“sandwich” composed of a painted backdrop and several layers of
painted translucent front curtains. Daguerre used a camera obscura
for the Diorama, but he wanted to find a more efficient and effective
procedure. Through a mutual acquaintance, he met Joseph Nicé-
phore Niépce (1765–1833), who in 1826 had successfully made a
permanent picture of the cityscape outside his upper-story window
by exposing, in a camera obscura, a metal plate covered with a light-
sensitive coating. Niépce’s process, however, had the significant draw-
back that it required an eight-hour exposure time. After Niépce died
in 1833, Daguerre continued his work, making two important dis-
coveries. Latent development—that is, bringing out the image through
treatment in chemical solutions—considerably shortened the length
of time needed for exposure. Daguerre also discovered a better way
to “fix” the image by chemically stopping the action of light on the
photographic plate, which otherwise would continue to darken until
the image turned solid black.
The daguerreotype reigned supreme in photography until the
1850s, but the second major photographic invention, the ancestor of
the modern negative-print system, eventually replaced it. On Janu-
ary 31, 1839, less than three weeks after Daguerre unveiled his
method in Paris, William Henry Fox Talbot presented a paper on his
“photogenic drawings” to the Royal Institution in London. As early
as 1835, Talbot made “negative” images by placing objects on sensi-
tized paper and exposing the arrangement to light. This created a de-
sign of light-colored silhouettes recording the places where opaque
or translucent objects had blocked light from darkening the paper’s
emulsion. In his experiments, Talbot next exposed sensitized papers
inside simple cameras and, with a second sheet, created “positive”
images. He further improved the process with more light-sensitive
chemicals and a chemical development of the negative image. This
technique allowed multiple prints. However, in Talbot’s process,
which he named the calotype (from the Greek word kalos,“beauti-
ful”), the photographic images incorporated the texture of the pa-
per. This produced a slightly blurred, grainy effect very different
from the crisp detail and wide tonal range available with the da-
guerreotype. Also discouraging widespread adoption of the calotype
were the stiff licensing and equipment fees charged for many years
after Talbot patented his new process in 1841.
An early master of an improved kind of calotype photography
was the multitalented Frenchman known as Nadar. He used glass neg-
atives and albumen printing paper (prepared with egg white), which
could record finer detail and a wider range of light and shadow than
Talbot’s calotype process. The new wet-platetechnology (so named be-
cause the photographic plate was exposed, developed, and fixed while
wet) almost at once became the universal way of making negatives un-
til 1880. However, wet-plate photography had drawbacks. The plates
had to be prepared and processed on the spot. Working outdoors
meant taking along a portable darkroom of some sort—a wagon, tent,
or box with light-tight sleeves for the photographer’s arms.
Nadar achieved so much fame for his wet-plate photographic
portraits (FIG. 30-1) that he became the subject of a Daumier litho-
graph (FIG. 30-49) that provides incisive and amusing commentary
about the struggle of photography to be recognized as a fine art. Dau-
mier made his print in response to an 1862 court decision acknowl-
edging that photography was indeed an art and therefore entitled to
protection under copyright law. In the lithograph, Nadar energeti-
cally takes pictures with his camera as his balloon rises over Parisian
rooftops—Daumier’s literal representation of the elevation of pho-
tography’s status that the court decision reaffirmed. The image also
refers to the fact that Nadar was a staunch advocate of balloon trans-
portation and aerial reconnaissance. He produced the first aerial
photographs of Paris in 1858 from his balloon Le Géant (The Giant).Daguerreotype, Calotype,
and Wet-Plate PhotographyMATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES
30-49Honoré Daumier,Nadar Raising Photography to the Height
of Art,1862. Lithograph, 10^3 – 4 83 – 4 . Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Daumier’s lithograph commemorates a court decision acknowledging
photography as an art form protected by copyright law. Nadar
(FIG. 30-1) was one of photography’s early masters.1 in.