Looking Inth 19th Century

From research I have gathered I will attempt to explain why I think the Ð''process of looking' acquired such significance in the 19th Century.

There were many contributing factors, ranging from the early 1800's through to the present day. However the most important and most significant being industrialisation and the development of new technologies in the 19th century.

Because cultures and social behaviour was changing industrialisation was introduced to main cities, which increased the amount of workers being moved in to fill the workloads. People who would have normally lived out their days working on farms and other agricultural jobs found themselves moving to the city to become machinists and factory workers. People found themselves earning more money and living very different lives to what they had in the country. An increase in people, buildings/architecture, art, photography and sculpture was to follow.

One of the most significant changes to take place in the 19th century, which was to make a massive impact in the way people looked at their surroundings was the invention of photography.

From the beginning of time people have been fascinated with the ability to encapsulate and perpetuate the living into the form of an image. We can trace back drawings of animals in caves to the last stages of the Paleolithic era, about 20,000 years ago.

It was not until 1826 that Niepce took the very first photograph using a camera. The photograph was taken from the window of his Paris home of a nearby pigeon house and barn. Niepce called his pictures "Heliographs," which were exposed on pewter plate measuring 8 inches by 6 inches, that had been sensitized with bitumen. The agonizing exposure would sometime take up to eight hours. Niepce formed a partnership with Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre to continue the "New Art". Unfortunately, Niepce died of a stroke in 1833 and left Daguerre to perfect the New Art all by himself.

Daguerre alone perfected the finally adopted method of sensitizing the silver plates with the fumes of iodine. In 1837 and 1838, Mr. Daguerre attempted to sell, or interest subscribers in his "daguerreotype" invention, but then the director of the Paris Observatory (Francois Arago) stepped into the picture. Arago used his influence to have France purchase Mr. Daguerre's invention and make it available to the entire world. Within a year, manuals covering the daguerreotype process were published in eight languages, and in thirty-two separate editions. The process was a No-Negative one, but for nearly two decades it served as the worlds principal mode of photography.

Professor Samuel Morse the inventor of the telegraph, of New York who along with his brothers were publishers of the "New York Observer" was very interested in the "New Art". He met Daguerre in Paris March seventh and eighth of 1839, to discuss the new invention and wrote back to his brothers with great details about it. They published his letter in May 18, 1839 issue of the New York Observer:

" A few days ago I addressed a note to M. Daguerre requesting, as a stranger, the favor to see his results, and inviting him in turn to see my Telegraph. I was politely invited to see them under these circumstances, for he had determined not to show them again, until the Chambers had passed definitely on a proposition for the Government to purchase the secret of the discovery, and make it public.... I called on M. Daguerre, at his rooms in the Diorama, to see these admirable results. They are produced on a metallic surface, the principal piece about 7" by 5", and they resemble aquatint engravings, for they are in simple chiaro-oscuro, and not in colors.... No painting or engraving ever approached it....."

Morse established a good friendship with Mr. Daguerre and developed a great interest for the new art. Having been the first to provide American readers with a personal report on Daguerre's invention, Morse was among the first to take up its practice when he returned to New York. He had many great students such as Mathew Brady and Edward Anthony, who all later started very successful businesses. He also

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