Gustave Le Gray

I wrote a paper on Le Gray for my 19th Century European Art class this month and felt like I should share some info on him because our art history classes don't really cover any photography. So, Gustave Le Gray started off as a painter and studied under the painter Delaroche. He might have been the one who introduced him to photography. His innovations helped photography advance during his time and believed that paper was the future in photography (since they used to use glass plates and silver-plated copper sheets). He invented a process called the wax paper process/method where one was able to create an even coat of chemicals that produced clearer images. He also began printing with two separate negatives on a single proof to get well exposed photographs of seascapes. The sky was usually always overexposed because cameras and the chemicals weren't capable of exposing sea and sky together properly. Le Gray became creative with his images and began experimenting with color by toning his prints with different hues. He was the first to believe that photography would be considered a fine art in the future and not just a science used only for replication. Many did not believe him..... but he was right after all :)