As with printing, electricity and even the airplane, this invention marked a turning point in the history of mankind. In the next few years, it will blow out its 200th birthday, and yet it hasn’t aged a day – in fact, it’s only gotten better with time. Far from the laboratories of London or the research institutes of New York, it’s in a small commune in the Lyon region, between a meadow of cows and the steeple of a church, that the first chapter of a revolution that has changed humanity forever will be played out.
Saint-Loup-de-Varennes and the inventor of photography
Veterinary medicine, cinema, the weaving loom… Lyon and the surrounding region are fertile ground for major inventions! It was in a small, rural commune on the outskirts of Chalon-sur-Saône that Nicéphore Niépce first operated his camera in 1827… 198 years ago!
Back then, the camera didn’t fit in the back pocket of a pair of jeans, let alone appear instantly in high resolution. The exposure time for this first photo probably took several days to allow the camera to capture enough light to transpose it onto a tin plate. Patience was therefore called for.
The Point de vue du Gras is the first photograph ever recorded, taken by the inventor from the window of his house in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes. We can make out the lines of two towers and a roof in the center, looking towards a receding horizon. Even if the result is far from clear-cut, we can still draw a crucial conclusion: the oldest tangible evidence in the world is the representation of a roof in the countryside near Lyon!
What to do in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes today?
What remains of Nicéphore Niépce’s legacy in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes today?For photography aficionados, Saint-Loup-de-Varennes is a must-see, as this is where it all began… The Maison de l’inventeur can be visited for part of the year, providing a more detailed understanding of the history behind the research into photography. Nicéphore Niépce is buried here, allowing true admirers to immortalize one of the greatest inventions of all time with a photograph of their own.