Nicéphore Niépce Produces the Earliest Surviving Camera Photograph

‍Photography’s impact on modern art is well established but its impact on digital and computer art more specifically is less examined yet central to this story. According to Herbert W. Franke, "The most significant stage on the path to the mechanization of the fine arts has been photography.” Further, art critic Frank Popper includes photography as the first of seven influences on the development of digital art. Digital generative artists such as Casey Reas, Margot Lovejoy and Terry Gips have all stressed the importance of photography to the development of computer art as well.

Nicéphore Niépce produced the earliest photograph made in a camera obscura that survives today, using a pewter plate coated with bitumen. This breakthrough served as the basis for the continuation of developments in photography to this day. The invention of photography stands as a paradigm shift in art history. The camera’s ability to capture representations of the visible world would lead to painters losing interest in strict realism and spur the gradual abstraction of modern art. Photography, in addition to becoming its own art form, would also lead to cinema and video art, as art expanded from a handmade practice to include capture practices.