Direct Positives

Hippolyte Bayard (1801-1887)

Hippolyte Bayard is little remembered today. Like his fellow Frenchman, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, and Englishman William Henry Fox Talbot, he independently invented a way of making photographs. His process resulted in direct positive images on paper.

Bayard sensitized paper with silver chloride, like Talbot, but then he exposed it to light until it turned dark. He then soaked the paper in a solution of potassium iodide and exposed it in the camera. The light bleached the paper in proportion to its intensity, creating a direct and unique positive. He fixed the print using sodium thiosulphate (Sir John Herschel's "hypo").

The publication in 1839 of the daguerreotype process completely overshadowed Bayard's work. François Arago was a highly placed French scientist and a strong supporter of Daguerre and his partner Niépce. Arago kept Bayard's discoveries out of the spotlight by arranging a payment to him of 600 francs for a new camera.

Bayard's photograph Self-Portrait as a Drowned Man was created in response to being overlooked by the French government. However, he went on to create a large body of images using Talbot and Daguerre's processes.