What did hippolyte Bayard discover about photography?

Bayard is an employee of the French Ministry of Finance. He began to learn photography from 1837, and tried to shoot positive images in a black box and succeeded.

(a) inventors who missed opportunities

From 65438 to 0839, Bayar began to make photos with negative-positive technology. Later, he thought that the effect of printing positive images directly on photographic paper was better than that of photos made by negative-positive process, so he turned to the technology of printing positive images directly. 1On March 20th, 839, he successfully obtained a positive image directly on photographic paper, but the exposure time was as long as one hour.

1839 In June, two months before the publication of Daguerre's photography, Bayar exhibited 30 positive photos directly printed on photographic paper, including still life, architecture and rural scenery: statues in the studio with black fabric as the background, stairs and walls of the small church in Clemente Square, and windmills with clear outlines in the highlands of Monte martel. This exhibition made Bayar the first person to show photos publicly in the history of photography.

At that time, arago, who was lobbying the French government to buy Daguerre Photography, specially presented 600 francs to Bayar after seeing these photos exhibited by Bayar, on condition that his research results were not published for the time being. Bayar accepted this condition and missed the opportunity to compete for the inventor of photography.

(2) Self-portrait of the drowning man

1840 On February 24th, Bayar formally submitted his research report to the French Academy of Sciences, but because Daguerre's photography method has been published, the Academy refused to recognize him. In a rage, Bayar disguised himself as a drowning man and wrote in the postscript of the photo:

Bayard's body is lying in front of you.

Like everyone else, no matter the emperor or an academician of the Academy of Sciences, anyone who has seen this corpse has enjoyed his photos. However, this kind of praise, although it brought him fame, is worthless.

Praise the government of Daguerre for not saying a word about Bayar. So he was immersed in disappointment.

Interestingly, although Bayar missed the opportunity to win the title of inventor of photography, his self-portrait titled "Self-portrait of the drowning man" shot in extreme disappointment and resentment became the first nude photo of a man in the history of human photography, and it was also the first time that a photographer tried to face his own camera.

During this period, Bayar also took another selfie, in which Bayar sat in front of his house with a depressed face, in stark contrast to the bright sunshine and lush trees in the yard.

Bayar took many photos, and the French Photography Society collected more than 600 of his works in various periods, including silver prints, silver iodide paper prints, and egg white dry prints. Although the society at that time failed to give him due evaluation, as a pioneer of photography, Bayar's contribution in the early stage of photography was indelible.