Documentary photography biography
Documentary photography biography
Documentary photography examples.
A History of Documentary Photography, Part I
When the Frenchman Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833) was developing his invention in 1810–20, he was already looking for a way to faithfully reproduce engravings, which were at the time the privileged vehicle of knowledge and information thanks to the ease of distribution and preservation in book form and archives.
Hercule Florence (1804-1879), another Frenchman, in exile in Brazil, was also trying to invent photography, but with the goal of reproducing banknotes.
His invention was thus geared toward a document par excellence, one with such force of proof that producing a counterfeit might earn the forger a death sentence.
François Arago’s report, presented to the Chamber of Deputies on July 3, 1839, arguing the usefulness of photography and advocating that the State purchase the invention, definitively sealed the union between photography and documentation.
A physicist and Secretary General of the Academy of Science, Arago had se