Early Photographic Processes

Lippmann

1890s? - 

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.

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.

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.

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.

In Edinburgh