Nicéphore Niépce

Nicéphore Niépce is credited with creating the world's first permanent photographic image, achieved around 1826 or 1827. He used his proprietary heliographic process to capture the famous "View from the Window at Le Gras."

Niépce used a pewter plate coated with bitumen of Judea, a naturally occurring asphalt that hardens when exposed to light. After a lengthy exposure time, he would wash away the unhardened bitumen with a solvent to reveal the image.

Niépce lived from 1765 to 1833, operating as a French inventor during a period of rapid scientific discovery. Much of his foundational photographic work occurred in the 1820s at his estate in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes.

Heliography, meaning "sun drawing," was Niépce's method of capturing light patterns to create a permanent image. It required remarkably long exposure times, often lasting several hours or even days, to properly harden the bitumen of Judea on a polished plate.