“The specimen photograph which we give at the head of this volume is not intended, one might well believe, to make us known to our readers; but we wanted to make them understand what the scope of such an invention could be, and for that we had to take two models that the public knows well.”⁠
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By the mid 19th century it was clear that harnessing the power of photography rest in its ability to be transferred onto the printed page; a technical challenge that consumed many of the greatest scientific and entrepreneurial minds of the time. While few of the processes and their inventors have been documented, most have been forgotten. ⁠ This photolithographic technique by Auguste Belloc and Jean Julien Jacott is a good example. Auguste Belloc, born in Paris in 1800, was a portrait miniaturist and watercolor painter. By 1851, he was making portraits with the daguerreotype and calotype processes. He was one of the founding members of the Société Française de Photographie. In the mid 1850’s, he was inventing, manufacturing and selling photographic supplies and equipment, which he continued until his death in 1868. he is also a founding member of the French Society of Photography created in 1854. ⁠ Jacott was a painter and lithographer. ‘By associating photography with the power of his artistic pencil, Mr. Jacott, after having helped us to create a process which promises such beautiful results… gives birth to⁠ a whole new industry.’ ⁠
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“The image we presently give is somewhat retouched, and we hardly pretend to have first reached the highest degree of perfection, but we are making new progress every day, and we can to say that our last test has come well enough for us to have the assurance of a near and complete success.”