200 years of photography...?

I would like to announce '200 years of photography' in 2026, based on the assumption that Joseph Nicéphore Niépce made 'The First Photo' in 2026:



Nobody seems to talk about it, am I getting something wrong? Isn't it worth celebrating, and maybe reflecting?

Enlighten me!

I feel the same way. There was an announcement in the British photography site and the French government has announced a call for projects. Chalon-sur-Saone has nothing planned. I guess its to long ago.
Maybe we are a year late

It could be argued that we have already passed the Bicentennial, around 2000. James Watt, the engineer, wrote to Thomas Wedgwood in 1800 "Dear Sir, I thank you for your instructions as to the Silver Pictures, about which, when at home, I will make some experiments"

Reality is that is 2026 only the Bicentennial of one person's experiments. One of many, like Herschel, who lead to the more practical processes of Daguerre and Fox Talbot.

Ian

Klaus Mähring said:

Nobody seems to talk about it, am I getting something wrong? Isn't it worth celebrating, and maybe reflecting?

Enlighten me!

Click to expand...

1826 has long been mentioned as the year Niépce did his heliograph Point du vue du Gras, but research shows that the correct date for this is 1827, sometime between June 4 and July 18, to be precise.

Klaus Mähring said:

based on the assumption that Joseph Nicéphore Niépce made 'The First Photo'

Click to expand...

Point de vue du Gras is not the first photo but the earliest surviving photograph. It's more than possible that Niépce had produced other heliographs before 1827 — he had been working on the process for a while — but that none survived.

Alex Benjamin said:

Point de vue du Gras is not the first photo but the earliest surviving photograph. It's more than possible that Niépce had produced other heliographs before 1827 — he had been working on the process for a while — but that none survived.

Click to expand...

I wonder if there is any image at all on what was Point de vue du Gras. Can we view it or is under lock and key in Texas ?

Alex Benjamin said:

Niépce had produced other heliographs before 1827 — he had been working on the process for a while — but that none survived.

Click to expand...

It seems his oldest was in 1822, an photo of an engraving of the pope. He later reused the plate.