DAY 22

HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Thomas Wedgwood

IMAGE RECORDING PIONEER

Thomas Wedgwood’s attempts to record images onto light-sensitive materials are the first such documented experiments in the pre-photographic period. Wedgwood, son of the famous potter Josiah Wedgwood (who had employed a camera obscura in the process of creating the designs for some of his china), had a background in science and was familiar with the study of light-sensitive materials, such as calcium carbonate mixed with silver nitrate and the light-sensitive qualities of silver chloride.

Beginning in 1799, Wedgwood and his colleague, chemist Humphry Davy, began to experiment with recording images on paper that had been treated with light-sensitive substances. Brushing paper with a solution of silver nitrate then setting an object on it and exposing it to the sun resulted in a white silhouette of the object on a black background that they called a “photogram.” They later continued their experiments using a type of leather as a surface because they found it to be more sensitive than paper.

They were unsuccessful at their attempts to record a permanent image with a camera obscura, but they continued to have success in recording images using other methods, including placing tiny paintings on glass and then placing them over their treated leather or paper. Unfortunately, their images quickly deteriorated and were best viewed by candlelight in darkened rooms. However, it was their work that greatly contributed to the generally more successful experiments of Joseph Nicephore Niepce nearly 25 years later. —DJG