Niepce's first photograph analyzed by the Getty Conservation Institute - GCI - Notes from the Field - Brief Article

Afterimage, Winter, 2002

Niepce's First Photograph Analyzed by The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI). In collaboration with the Ransom Center in Austin, Texas, GCI conducted tests to decipher Niepce's development process. The scientists found that the photographer used "a pewter plate coated with bitumen, prepared with lavender oil and dried in the dark" and that the bitumen was a layer of "microdots" not the solid layer that it was previously believed to be, which gives rise to a number of conservation questions.

Also examined was the heliograph's frame; GCI is in the process of conserving the frame believed to be the original dating back to the late 1820s. The heliograph, "View From the Window at Le Gras," will be on view at the Ransom Galleries in Austin, Texas in early 2003. For more information visit www.getty.edu