Nicéphore Niépce

Nicéphore Niépce (1765–1833) was a French inventor and one of the founding figures of photography.

Born in Chalon-sur-Saône, France, Niépce began experimenting with ways to permanently capture images produced by the camera obscura in the early 19th century. After years of research, he developed a process he called heliography, using light-sensitive materials to create permanent images.

Around 1827, at his family estate of Le Gras in Burgundy, Niépce created View from the Window at Le Gras. Made on a pewter plate coated with bitumen of Judea, the image records buildings and landscape visible from an upstairs window. It is recognized as the earliest surviving photograph produced with a camera.

Niépce later entered into a partnership with Louis Daguerre to continue developing photographic processes. He died in 1833, before the public announcement of the daguerreotype in 1839.

His experiments established one of the fundamental ideas of photography: using light, optics and chemistry to permanently record an image of the visible world.