Mediterranean Sea, Sète-no. 18

The dramatic effects of sunlight, clouds, and water in Gustave Le Gray’s seascapes stunned his contemporaries and immediately brought him international recognition. At a time when photographic chemistry was not equally sensitive to all colors of the spectrum, most photographers found it impossible to achieve proper exposure of both landscape and sky in a single picture. Here, Le Gray solved this problem by printing two negatives on a single sheet of paper—one exposed for the sea, the other for the sky, perhaps made on separate occasions or even at different locations. Although the relationship of sunlight to reflection in this example was carefully considered and the two negatives skillfully printed, one can still see their join at the horizon. Le Gray’s marine pictures caused a sensation not only because their simultaneous depiction of sea and heavens represented a technical tour de force but also because the resulting poetic effect was without precedent in photography.