In 1839, the French government commissioned Joseph Nic?phore Ni?pce to create a means of reproducing images. Nic?phore was a successful artist and had developed a method of printing images using lithography, but he was not satisfied with the quality of the images. He began experimenting with photography and in 1837 he created the first photographic image.
Nic?phore took his first photograph in 1826, but it was not until 1839 that he was able to develop a process that would allow him to create a negative from which multiple copies could be made. This process, known as the daguerreotype, quickly became the most popular method of photography.
Nic?phore’s process was eventually eclipsed by the invention of the negative/positive process by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1841. Talbot’s process, known as the calotype, allowed for the creation of unlimited copies of a photograph.
The calotype quickly became the preferred method of photography, and it remained the standard for over two decades. In the 1860s, new photographic processes began to be developed that would eventually lead to the modern day process of photography.
