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Joseph Niepce(1765-1833) holds a place in history as being credited the first person to produce a photographic image. He began his photographic research by looking for a process that would allow him to transfer drawings onto printing plates. In 1822, he coated a pewter sheet with a light-sensitive asphalt, called bitumen of Judea, that hardens when exposed to light. Then he contact-printed a drawing, which had been oiled to make it transparent, to the pewter plate with sunlight. Niepce washed the pewter plate with lavender oil to remove the parts not hardened by light, then he etched it with acid to make an incised copy of the original. Niepce called his invention heligravure (sungraving). A photographically etched printing plate made from an engraving of Cardinal d'Abroise and subsequently used for printing marked the dawning of photogravure.
Above: Joseph Niepce's photolithographic print of Cardinal d'Ambroise, c.1822. This routine portrait print is the first image printed from a plate that was created by the photochemical action of light rather than by the human hand.
Click on the image below to see an enlarged image of a heliograph print. This print marks the first photograph taken from nature. The name of the piece is entitled "View From His Window At Le Gras," and dates back to 1827.
