Milestone
The First Photograph
Also Known As View from the Window at Le Gras
Photography Milestones
Nicephore Niepce's View from the Window at Le Gras, a pewter-plate heliograph of the courtyard at his estate near Chalon-sur-Saone, exposed around 1826 or 1827 and the earliest surviving photograph from nature. The plate is preserved at the Harry Ransom Center in Texas.
Facts
Disputed
WhenThe exact date is uncertain: Niepce's own correspondence places his first successful permanent camera image sometime between 1822 and 1827, and the exposure length is likewise disputed, an eight or nine hour mid-20th-century estimate against a later finding of several days. 2 Sources commonly round the date to 1826 or 1827 for convenience, but Niepce's own letters only bound it within a five year window. Milestone YearScholars date the exposure to 1826 or 1827; the plate itself is undated. LocationSaint-Loup-de-Varennes, France 1 Connections
Associated With
Credited To
Source National Science and Media Museum Official Site
In Medium
Open Questions
Sources
1. National Science and Media Museum Official Site
National Science and Media Museum, Science Museum GroupNational Science and Media Museum blog, N is for... Joseph Nicephore Niepce, creator of the first photograph
In 1826, using this process, Niepce took the earliest surviving photograph, a view from a window of his house in Chalons-sur-Saone which required an exposure of about 8 hours!
- Credited To: Nicephore Niepce
View the Source 2. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationNicephore Niepce, Photography section
Niepce's correspondence with his brother Claude has preserved the fact that his first real success in using bitumen to create a permanent photograph of the image in a camera obscura came sometime between 1822 and 1827.
Nicephore Niepce, View from the Window at Le Gras
View from the Window at Le Gras (French: Point de vue du Gras) is the oldest surviving photograph.
Wikipedia: Nicephore Niepce, lead section
In the mid-1820s, he used a primitive camera to produce the oldest surviving photograph of a real-world scene.
View the Source Open Questions (1 open question)
When exactly did Nicéphore Niépce make the first surviving photograph?
Niepce's own correspondence with his brother Claude places his first successful permanent camera image sometime between 1822 and 1827, and the exposure length is itself disputed: an eight-to-nine-hour mid-20th-century estimate against a later finding of several days.
What would resolve this A firmly dated Niepce document narrowing the range, or a forensic re-examination of the surviving plate itself.
History of photographyWikipedia
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