The first-ever photograph is returning home to France for first time in 200 years
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce's historic eight-minute exposure heads to Burgundy to join in the French celebrations for the 200th anniversary of photography
The world's earliest photograph, View from the Window at Le Gras, created by Nicéphore Niépce in either 1826 or 1827, is set to return to its birthplace in France for the first time in 200 years. This historic image, depicting a courtyard from a room in Niépce's home in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, just outside Chalon-sur-Saône, will be exhibited in both the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin and the Niépce Museum in Chalon-sur-Saône.
The photograph, made using a camera obscura and a sheet of pewter plate coated with bitumen of Judea, required an 8-hour exposure. Despite Niépce's hopes to showcase his photographic process, heliography, to the Royal Society and King George IV, his refusal to disclose the technical details of his chemical process resulted in his presentation being canceled.
The Gernsheim Collection, which includes View from the Window at Le Gras, is now housed at the Harry Ransom Center and the Musée Nicéphore Niépce will jointly host the exhibition Radical Forms: Photographic Experimentation from February 27, 2027.
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