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Transcript of Hippolyte Bayard
Hippolyte BayardEditor: Paul Muljadi
Hippolyte Bayard 1
Hippolyte Bayard
Hippolyte Bayard
Bayard's Self Portrait as a Drowned Man
Born France
Nationality French
Field Photography
Works Self Portrait as a Drowned Man
Hippolyte Bayard (20 January 1807 – 14 May 1887) was a French photographer a pioneer in the history of
photography. He invented his own process known as direct positive printing and presented the world's first public
exhibition of photographs on 24 June 1839. He claimed to have invented photography earlier than Louis-Jacques
Mandé Daguerre in France and William Henry Fox Talbot in England, the men traditionally credited with its
invention.[1]
Early life and career
While working as a civil servant, Bayard experimented with photography. He developed his own method of
producing photos called the Direct positive process. [2] It involved exposing silver chloride paper to light, which
turned the paper completely black. It was then soaked in potassium iodide before being exposed in a camera. After
the exposure, it was washed in a bath of hyposulfite of soda and dried.
The resulting image was a unique photograph that could not be reproduced. Due to the paper's poor light sensitivity,
an exposure of approximately twelve minutes was required. Using this method of photography, still subject matter,
such as buildings, were favoured. When used for photographing people, sitters were told to close their eyes so as to
eliminate the eerie, "dead" quality produced due to blinking and moving one's eyes during such a long exposure.
In the summer of 1851, along with photographers Édouard Baldus, Henri Le Secq, Gustave Le Gray, and O. Mestral,
Bayard travelled throughout France to photograph architectural monuments at the request of the Commission des
Monuments Historiques.[3]
Hippolyte Bayard 2
Self Portrait as a Drowned Man
Bayard was persuaded to postpone announcing his process to the French Academy of Sciences by François Arago, a
friend of Louis Daguerre, who invented the rival daguerreotype process. Arago's conflict of interest cost Bayard the
recognition as one of the principal inventors of photography. He eventually gave details of the process to the French
Academy of Sciences on 24 February 1840 in return for money to buy better equipment.
As a reaction to the injustice he felt he had been subjected to, Bayard created the first staged photograph entitled,
Self Portrait as a Drowned Man. In the image, he pretends to have committed suicide, sitting and leaning to the
right. Bayard wrote on the back of his most notable photograph:
“The corpse which you see here is that of M. Bayard, inventor of the process that has just been shown to you. As far as I know this
indefatigable experimenter has been occupied for about three years with his discovery. The Government which has been only too
generous to Monsieur Daguerre, has said it can do nothing for Monsieur Bayard, and the poor wretch has drowned himself. Oh the
vagaries of human life....! ... He has been at the morgue for several days, and no-one has recognized or claimed him. Ladies and
gentlemen, you'd better pass along for fear of offending your sense of smell, for as you can observe, the face and hands of the
gentleman are beginning to decay.”
Late career
Despite his initial hardships in photography, Bayard continued to be a productive member of the photographic
society. He was a founding member of the French Society of Photography. Bayard was also one of the first
photographers to be commissioned to document and preserve architecture and historical sites in France for the
Missions Héliographiques in 1851 by the Historic Monument Commission. He used a paper photographic process
similar to the one he developed to take pictures for the Commission. Additionally, he suggested combining two
negatives to properly expose the sky and then the landscape or building, an idea known as combination printing
which began being used in the 1850s.
Famous Photographs
• Self Portrait as a Drowned Man, 1840.
• Specimens, 1842.
• Construction Worker, Paris, 1845-1847.
• Self Portrait in the Garden, 1847.
External links
• Hippolyte Bayard and Photogenic Drawing [4]
• Hippolyte Bayard (Getty Museum) [5]
References
• Gautrand, Jean-Claude and Frizot, Michel, Hippolyte Bayard. Naissance de l'image photographique, Éd. Trois
cailloux, 1986.
• Keeler, Nancy, "Hippolyte Bayard aux origines de la photographie et de la ville moderne", in: La Recherche
photographique Nr. 2, Univ. Paris VIII, May 1987.
• Lavin, Amélie, Hippolyte Bayard. Fictions photographiques: effet d'image et jeu idéal, DEA Thesis, Univ. Paris
I, 2001.
• Poivert, Michel and Lavin, Amélie, Hippolyte Bayard, Photopoche Nr. 91, Paris: Nathan 2001.
• Rosen, Margit, Hippolyte Bayard. Fotografie und die Fiktion des Todes, MA Thesis, Staatliche Hochschule für
Gestaltung Karlsruhe (HfG), 2002.
Hippolyte Bayard 3
• Hippolyte Bayard: chevalier de l'ombre (Proceedings of the collquy in Breteuil-sur-Noye, 16-17 November
2001), Breteuil-sur-Noye: Société historique de Breteuil-sur-Noye, 2005.
[1] http:/ / www. getty. edu/ art/ gettyguide/ artMakerDetails?maker=1876
[2] Hippolyte Bayard (http:/ / www. metmuseum. org/ toah/ works-of-art/ 2005. 100. 32)
[3] Lemagny, Jean-Claude, etal. (1986). A History of Photography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 56–57. ISBN 0 521 34407 7.
[4] http:/ / www. photograms. org/ chapter02. html
[5] http:/ / www. getty. edu/ art/ gettyguide/ artMakerDetails?maker=1876
Article Sources and Contributors 4
Article Sources and ContributorsHippolyte Bayard Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=453656233 Contributors: Artexetra, Atravesty, Aurora, Bryan Derksen, D6, Dalliance, Darwinek, Ft1, Gcm, Hutcher,Jck1, Jeffmedkeff, Lvl, M2545, Mankind 2k, Marcelobbribeiro, MarkSweep, Metsavend, MichaelBillington, RKill, Raymond, RogDel, Scewing, Seth Ilys, The lorax, The pink panthers,Unyoyega, Waelder, Will Beback, Wknight94, 19 anonymous edits
Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsFile:Hippolyte Bayard - Drownedman 1840.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Hippolyte_Bayard_-_Drownedman_1840.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors:Hippolyte Bayard
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