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Early
Photographic Processes
Lippmann
1890s?
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Discovery |
1891s
In 1891 a colour process, later to be known at the
Lippmann process was announced by Gabriel Lippmann, who became head of
the Sorbonne's Laboratories of Physical Research in 1886 and later
went on to win the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1909.
The Lippmann process created much interest in the
photographic press in the 1890s, but never gained widespread popularity.
It required a specially adapted camera and long
exposures. The process was tedious, and, as the comment below, taken
from the British Journal of Photography in 1895 suggests, success
was by no means guaranteed.
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Competition for Lippmann
Photographs - 1895
"The Societe Francaise de Photographie
is organizing a competition in the production of colour photographs by
Lippmann's method. ... The object of the competition, says 'Le
Moniteur' is to popularise the Lippmann method and enrich the Society with
the work of its members."
"We hope both ends will be attained, but
remembering Mr Fred Ives's statement, that half a dozen examples shown in
the country a year or so ago were the result of some thousands of trials,
we are not sanguine on this point."
[BJP 11 Jan 1895, p.23]
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There was still at least one
photographer continuing to produce images by the Lippann Process in 2002. He
brought some of his work to the Alternative Processing International
Symposium (APIS) held at the National
Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford, England. |
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Process |
The colours in a Lippmann Image
are produced not by dies or pigments, but by the interference patterns
from light at different wavelengths.
The exposure is made using a camera which has been
adapted so that the plate rests directly against a layer of mercury which
reflects back the light from the subject and causes an interference
pattern which is captured as a latent image on the plate.
The plate is then developed and fixed. |
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Result |
The result is a
remarkably clear and accurate image, when lit and viewed from the correct
angle.
It is not possible
to make duplicate copies of this image. |
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In
Edinburgh
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