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Niépce Joseph Nicéphore
(1765—1833)

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, also spelled Niepce was a French inventor, most noted as a pioneer in photography. Nicephore Niepce was born to a rich family. His father was the king's councilor and his mother - a daughter of a well known lawyer. In his childhood Niepce showed a great interest in the invention process but was preparing for ecclesiastical carreer; he quit it in 1792 to become an army officer. Niepce left the army in the first period of the French revolution because of his royalist sympathies. When Napaleon came Niepce returned into the army and took part in Sardinian and Italian military operations. He retired due to helth problems and was a statesman in Nizza for a few years. In 1801 he returned home to Chalon and togehter with his brother Claude devoted the rest of his life to scientific investigations. He was said to have first produced long lasting images in 1824. The earliest known surviving example of a Niépce photograph (or any other photograph) was created in June or July of 1827 (or 1826, according to some sources). Niépce called his process "heliography", meaning "sun writing". The exposure time required is an issue still debated today, somewhere between 8 and 20 hours. Because of the very long exposure time, the process was used to photograph buildings and inanimate objects, but could not be practically used to photograph people. Starting in 1829 he began collaborating on improved photographic processes with Louis Daguerre. Niépce died suddenly of a stroke in 1833.

France, 1939, Joseph Nicephore Niepce and Louis Daguerre

France, 1999, View of Notre Dame, 1936

Suriname, 1989, Joseph Nicephore Niepce

Wallis & Futuna, 1983, Joseph Nicephore Niepce

France, 1983.10.15—16, Chalon sur Saone. Nicephore Niepce