History of World Art II: Day 61

The term for photography was coined by John Herschel in 1839 and is derived from the Greek words phōs meaning light and gráphein, to write.

Ibn al-Haytham (956-1040) studied the camera obscura and pinhole camera, a type that was originally used in the 6th century experiments of the Byzantine mathematician Anthemius of Tralles. Silver nitrate was discovered by Albertus Magnus (1193/1206-1280) and silver chloride was discovered by Georges Fabricius (1516-1571), both important in creating photographs and the photochemical effect of light darkening some chemicals was later described by Wilhelm Homberg in 1694. A diaphragm was described by Daniel Barbaro in 1568. A novel called Giphantie by the French author Charles-François Tiphaigne de la Roche (1729-1774) described what can be interpreted as photography.

The French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce produced the first photographs on polished pewter plates covered by the petroleum derivative, bitumen of Jude. He produced the first permanent photograph in 1826, which was later accidentally destroyed. When he died he left his notes to Louis Daguerre, with whom he refined the existing silver process. Daguerre announced on January 7, 1839 that he had invented a process using silver on a copper plate called the daguerreotype which the French government bought the patent for and released immediately to public domain.

Hercules Florence a French-Brazilian painter and inventor had created a similar process in 1832, and named it Photographie.

In 1839, after Fox Talbot read about Daguerre's invention, he perfected his own process after finding an effective fixer that had been developed by John Herschel an astronomer who found that hyposulfite of soda (or hypo, now known as sodium thiosulfate) that dissolved silver salts. Herschel made the first glass negative that same year.

During the 19th century photography became widely embraced helping artists to reveal the true nature of things, something that had been striven for since art began. The relatively easy process and low cost of the resulting prints allowed art to become even more accessible to the middle class with it's lower cost.

The first photographic portrait image of a human ever produced.
"Robert Cornelius, head-and-shoulders [self-]portrait, facing front,
with arms crossed", approximate quarter plate daguerreotype, 1839