"What began as an experiment in chemistry and light became a tool of science, journalism, art, memory, and protest. Today, in an era saturated with smartphone images and artificial intelligence, France's bicentennial asks a timely question: What does it mean to celebrate photography when images are everywhere? The answer lies not only in honoring the past but also in exploring how the medium will continue to evolve into the future."
"Photography's story starts in rural Burgundy. Between 1826 and 1827, Nicéphore Niépce achieved the first permanently fixed photographic image using a process he called héliographie. His method relied on a pewter plate coated with light-sensitive bitumen of Judea. After an exposure that lasted many hours, the hardened areas remained while the rest dissolved, revealing a ghostly image of rooftops and sky. The result, now known as Point de vue du Gras, is widely considered the oldest surviving photograph."
Nicéphore Niépce produced the first permanently fixed photograph around 1826 at Le Gras using a heliography process on a pewter plate coated with bitumen of Judea, requiring many hours of exposure. The resulting Point de vue du Gras captures rooftops and sky and is considered the oldest surviving photograph. France will celebrate that origin with the Bicentenaire de la Photographie, a yearlong national program from September 2026 to September 2027 mobilizing museums, archives, artists, scholars, and the public. The celebration will honor photography's roles in science, journalism, art, memory, and protest while engaging questions about images' ubiquity in the smartphone and AI era.
Read at Frenchly
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