The First Photography Books

One of his first achievements was his successful attempt to duplicate an engraving of the Cardinal d'Amboise.

Thanks to light-sensitive substances, he succeeded in creating a printing matrix on a pewter plate, which allowed several prints to be made from an existing image.

Nicéphore Niépce based the foundations for photoengraving on printing methods.

After collaborating with Nicéphore Niépce, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre continued their work following the death of the former in 1833. It resulted in the so-called daguerreotype process, 'revealed' to the world by Daguerre and Arago in 1839.

The daguerreotype was a real commercial success. It was an instant, positive image. However, it was a unique photograph, and very difficult to duplicate.

In the autumn of 1839, Noel-Marie Paymal-Lerebours commissioned several daguerreotypists to take picturesque shots of eastern and southern Mediterranean countries and some European towns, intending to publish them.

The difficulty duplicating the daguerreotype made a printed circulation of these photographs difficult. The help of both a designer who could copy and reinterpret the photograph and an engraver were required.

Of the 1200 shots taken, 114 were used to produce lithographs from the daguerreotypes, and were then published by Lerebours in his 'Excursions Daguerriennes' released in two editions between 1840 and 1843.

Niépce and Daguerre were not the only ones to reproduce reality using photosensitive products. The English Talbot developed a completely different process, based on the same principles.

Rather than producing singular, positive images on metal, Talbot invented the calotype in 1841, a negative photograph on paper.

The calotype could be used as a matrix to make as many positive prints as desired.

To make a name for his invention, Talbot published a manifesto, illustrated with positive photographs pasted in by hand, The Pencil of Nature.

He described in six instalments published between 1844 and 1846 the revolution brought about by photography in the arts, sciences, and in how knowledge was circulated.

With this publication, Talbot was the first to combine text with photographic images in the form of a book. He was also the first to introduce the notion of an act of creation, and so the notion of an author, in the art of photography.

In 1852, the publication of the album 'Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie" by Maxime du Camp, marked the start of luxury photographic editions. Blanquart-Evrard published many other works such as the 'Keepsake Photographique' (1851-1855) or the 'Album Photographique d'Archéologie Religieuse' by Hippolyte Malègue in 1857.

The 1850-1860s research into photomechanical reproduction processes continued intensely.

Enlightened art lover, the Duke of Luynes was interested in archeology and chemistry, and a photographer himself.

The Duke of Luynes willingly put his immense fortune to the service of the arts and the sciences. He launched a competition in 1856 "to stimulate the zeal of the people who dedicated themselves to this important research."

A sum of 8000 francs was allocated for the inventor of the best photomechanical reproduction process.

A sum of 2000 francs for the one who made the most progress in silver photographic prints, or in fixing them permanently.

It took the jury 10 years to decide to reward in 1867 a technique that has been approved since 1855 (Poitevin's process of photolithography).

Pierre Trémaux (1818-1895) was an architect, orientalist, scientist, and photographer. Coming second in the 1845 'Priz de Rome' in architecture, he made a number of trips in 1847-1848 then in 1853-1854, exploring several North African countries.

During his travels, Trémaux conducted photographic campaigns that most notably gave rise to the publication of 'Voyage au Soudan Oriental', a book accompanied by an atlas.

In this atlas, Trémaux published many maps and in particular, lithographs made from photographs.

The other remarkable aspect of this work was its ethnological approach and its early interest for the populations of the countries traveled through.

The full ambition of the original project was never achieved (355 photographs in 3 editions). Trémaux began by publishing prints on albumen paper and traditional lithographs.

The poor quality of the prints and their instability over time forced him to replace them with photo-lithographs, which he resent to subscribers.

Some of the photo-lithographs were reinterpreted (notably by addition of people).

Photography was used in all fields: literary, artistic, scientific, ethnological, judicial, social, military, political, industrial, commercial… and so became the ideal tool for the propagation of ideas and lifestyles.

Mastery of these new methods took time and it was only in the mid-1920s that the press really took hold of these new techniques.

Launched by Lucien Vogel in 1928, the magazine VU revolutionized the way photography was presented and circulated to as many people as possible.

Heliography made it possible to combine photographs and text in a more fluid and dynamic way, at the discretion of the artistic director.

Complementary text and images made sense and photography was no longer used only to illustrate.

It was in VU that photo reporting was invented: photographers were entrusted to cover certain subjects in order to meet editorial needs. The text complemented or expanded on the point of view developed by the photographs.

The new options for page layout allowed for a more modern ease of reading.