Each picture creates a history in itself. The world’s first photo also has its own 194-year-old history. The story of this first picture taken on a black plate of asphalt or asphalt is also interesting. Let’s take a look at the world photography day under the pretext of this story and know which people taught us to take photos.
Why is this day celebrated
In the year 1826, the credit for drawing the world’s first looking picture is given to the combative inventor of France Joseph Nicefor and his friend Luis Dogger, who devoted half of his age to this work. This achievement of taking photographs of these two is called the world ‘dogotype’ process and to honor it, the process of celebrating World Photography Day began.
The process was announced by the French Academy of Sciences on January 9, 1839, and a few months later, on August 19, 1839, the French government announced the process as a gift to the world without copyright. Since then, this day is celebrated on 19 August.
This event is completing 194 years in 2020, on this occasion, we have brought for you the story of the making of the first picture and the story of great characters dedicated to photography –
Read Also: World Photography Day 2020: Photography is a great hobby
The town of eastern France, the spring season and the year 1826
- Born in 1765, Joseph Nicefor lived in the Saint-Loup-de-Varennes town of eastern France. Nicephore, son of a wealthy lawyer and an officer of Napoleon’s army, was also a science professor at the college at one time. He was interested in art and he was involved in making photography machine with the help of science in it.
- According to the information recorded in the photo museum, it was on the spring of 1926 when Joseph took the first photograph. We usually know what to capture when taking a photo, but this was not the case with the first photo taken in 1826.
- Standing near the first floor window of his two-story house in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, Joseph suddenly captured a picture and captured a view from outside the window. Simply, this moment was recorded in history and it was the first picture of the world named “View from the Window at Le Gras”.
It took 6 years of preparation to take the first photo
- Joseph Nicefor and his friend Louis Dogger had been working since 1820 to make the first picture into reality. Both first tried to take photos on metal like tin and copper. After being unsuccessful, he used bitumen asphalt.
- Both were engaged in developing techniques of taking photos with the help of sun rays by spreading different chemicals on a plate in their own home. Actually, the camera was made in the 18th century, but the real problem was of the photo plate on which the photo could be developed.
- In 1820, both of them devised the dogotype process to find a solution. The term Doggerotype is derived from the surname of Louise Dogger. Even after this, it took 6 years to take the first picture and in 1826 the first photo was captured with its help.
- The capture of this picture took the help of a large camera named Obscura and the whole process took about 8 hours. Later on, this whole process was called ‘Heliography’.
- Dogarotype is the world’s first photographic process that has been used by ordinary people for photographs since 1839. Much larger cameras were used in this. With the help of this, a clear picture could be taken in a few minutes, but it was just black and white.
- Nearly 13 years later, the French government recognized his work and on 19 August 1839, the invention was officially announced. Sadly, it was only 6 years before that that Joseph had said goodbye to the world.
This is how the world’s first color photo was taken
- The struggle to take color photos started after the black and white photographs surfaced. In preparing it, the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell won it. Maxwell, a great scientist who introduced himself to the electromagnetic field, had been working on a three-color analysis process to create a color photograph since 1955.
- Maxwell was aware that the human eye has specialized cells for the recognition of colors and that light has a very important role in this recognition. Based on this, they conducted their experiments.
- Thomas Sutton, the inventor of the single-lens reflex camera, also helped him in this task and set up a process of taking photos according to sensitivity on different color photo plates.
- Maxwell presented the world’s first color photograph on 17 May 1861 in front of the world’s largest inventor at the Royal Society. The picture was of the famous tartan ribbon in Scotland and it looked red, blue, and yellow, which was put on the plate with the help of filters of these three colors.
- This photo-taking process was inspired by the heliography process of black and white photos. It used to take one color picture at a time with the help of color filters and then a full picture was made by superimposing pictures of all colors. It was a complicated and lengthy process that later led to the invention of the lens and camera reel.
The world’s 3 largest inventors of photography
1. Joseph Nicefor
- Joseph’s father was an elder lawyer and brother researcher who later moved to England. He would be interested in experimenting while studying in college and later working as a professor.
- Joseph served as a staff officer under the leadership of Napoleon in the French Army on the islands of Italy and Sardinia. However, during this time he began to remain ill and had to resign from the army.
- After resigning in 1795, he began experimenting in science with his brother Claude and worked on the process of photography plate development for many years.
- He died of a stroke on 5 July 1833. Where he used to take the first photo, he was buried at some distance.
- After his death, his son Isidore worked closely with Louis and the government started receiving a pension in memory of his father.
2. Louis Dogger: The first process of photography named after him is Doggerotype.
- Louis being an architect and theater designer, is also called the world’s first panorama painter.
- They friendship with Joseph Nicefor in 1819, the two worked together for 14 years.
- The result of Louis’s persistent hard work was that the government issued a pension in memory of friend Joseph.
- Louis tried to pursue his experiment with funding with private investors but was unsuccessful.
- Louis decided that he would go public with his achievement. His achievement was finally recorded by the French government as an honor.
3. James Clerk Maxwell: The First Color Photo
- Physicist James Clarke Maxwell was born in Edenburgh, Scotland. In 1865, the electromagnetic theory was given by Maxwell.
- At an early age, Maxwell was fond of reading long and long poems. Once they read the poem, they remembered it.
- Seeing this quality, his mother started paying special attention to Maxwell’s studies.
- Maxwell was sent to Edenburgh Academy to study. At the age of just 13, he won medals in all three in Mathematics, English and Poetry in one year.
- At the age of just 14, he wrote his scientific paper for the journal, in which he discovered new information about the mathematical curve.
Now meet ‘Father of Wildlife Photographies’ George Shires III
- George Shirs, born in Pennsylvania, USA, was a famous hunter with a lawyer and leader by profession. During this time, he was fond of taking pictures of animals.
- Walking through the woods, George was completely immersed in wildlife photography. He later became a protector of wildlife and devoted his entire life to the forest and animals.
- George was the first to use camera trap and flash photography in 1889 to take photographs of wildlife.
- The blanc and white photo of him drawn in and around Lake Michigan, America, is the world’s heritage.
- National Geographic has named George Shires as “The Father of Wildlife Photography”. His entire collection of 2400 glass negatives is safe with National Geographic.
- National Geographic has published a book “In the Heart of the Dark Night” in honor of George.
Finally, the story of the first selfie that all the fans of today are
- The credit for taking the world’s first selfie goes to Robert Cornelius, a young American businessman and photography enthusiast. Robert’s father had a silver plate making business that was used to develop the photo.
- The year the French government gifted the photography process to the world, the same year it took place. It was one day in 1839, the young Robert Cornelius stood in front of a camera lens on Chestnut Street, located in Philadelphia city center.
- At that time it took several minutes to take the picture, then he suddenly set the camera and took out the lens cap and ran in front of it by pressing the click button and stood in the frame.
- It was just the world’s first selfie that was taken on the run and later it was also awarded the ‘First Light Picture’.
- At that time, many people started using George, although the term selfie was not in circulation at that time. The word selfie is said to be just 18 years old and was first used by a boy in Australia in 2002 for a self-portrait photo.
