A world without photographs…
Because we are surrounded by photographs, it’s impossible to imagine a world without them. I’m reading Robert Taft’s 1938 book of essays “Photography and the American Scene” and it has been effective in getting the point across once again that the birth of photography in 1830 stood the world on its head.
Do you remember the first e-mail you received? How incredulous you were at the miracle of the internet? Well, the concept of freezing a second in time with an exact duplicate of that second – not an illustration – was a unfathomable wonder to the world. It was science, not art, at that point, and inventors and scientists were the ones working on the incredible concept of fixing an image of life on to….something. Metal? Paper? What would work?
First photograph/Joseph Nicephore Niépce, 1826
But my point here is, as Taft writes: “How would you describe a photograph if you had never seen one before and were totally unfamiliar with its appearance?”
Well, the editor of the New York magazine The Knickerbocker was obviously rendered almost speechless. Here’s what he wrote upon seeing the first daguerreotypes: “We have seen the views taken in Paris… and have no hesitation in avowing that they are the most remarkable objects of curiosity and admiration in the arts we have ever beheld. Their exquisite perfection almost transcends the bounds of sober belief.”
Boulevard du Temple/Daguerre
You may think from this “Boulevard du Temple” daguerreotype that the streets of Paris weren’t used much, but the place was packed and humming nonstop! Consider that this is an exposure of perhaps 10 or more minutes – the only person not moving is the man having his boots blackened and therefore, he is the only person in this daguerreotype.
Many felt that because of this long exposure time required to make a daguerreotype, portraits using photography would never be possible. Daguerre himself told Samuel B. Morse, the first American to bring the daguerreotype process home, that he “held little hope for the practicability of portrait taking by his process”. Even though the above daguerreotype was exposed for over 10 minutes, the process quickly became more efficient and on a sunny day 5 minutes was possible.
Enter the Americans. In less than a year, Robert Cornelius, based in Philadelphia, made what is considered the first successful portrait using the daguerreotype process. Many others were trying too, including John W. Draper who made a wonderful daguerreotype portrait of his sister, Dorothy most likely in the summer of 1840. The exposure was probably less than 90 seconds and blinking is so rapid that unless the sitter closed her eyes for a length of time, the eyes would be photographed as open.
Dorothy Catherine Draper by John W. Draper (this image has totally faded away)
The excitement over the possibilities was enormous and again, it’s just plain hard to identify with it as ubiquitous as photographs are today. By the early 1850′s claims that over 3 million daguerreotype portraits were being made annually in this country were easily substantiated. Trading photographs with your friends and family members? It was a rage in Europe and the United States and I guess I can safely say, hasn’t stopped since.
