:Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard

He was born and raised in LilleLance Day & Ian McNeil, (eds.). Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology, 1995. where he studied chemistry with Charles Frédéric Kuhlmann and miniature painting on porcelain.[https://archive.org/stream/EncyclopediaOf19thCenturyPhotography/Encyclopedia%20of%2019th%20Century%20Photography#page/n207/mode/2up Encyclopedia of nineteenth-century photography: A-I], Volume 1, edited by John Hannavy. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2007, pp. 167–168. After Louis Daguerre solved the problem of long exposure time and introduced daguerreotypy, a practical photographic process, to the general public in 1839, Blanquart-Evrard developed interest in photography. He studied the calotype, salt-print negative process, and in 1847 became the first person to publish on negative/positive paper photo process in France. He developed a method of bathing the paper in solutions of potassium iodide and silver nitrate rather than brushing these chemical baths on the surface.[http://www.conservation-wiki.com/wiki/Salted_Paper,_Blanquart-Evrard_process Salted Paper, Blanquart-Evrard process][http://maca.contentdm.oclc.org/u?/p1325coll1,4043 Photomechanical plates in La photographie, ses origines, ses progrès, ses transformations], David A. Hanson Collection of the History of Photomechanical Reproduction In January 1847, he presented his research on stabilizing the photo prints by floating them in the silver solution to the French Academy of Sciences.

File:1871 Three Color Print by Blanquart-Evrard.png

In 1850, he developed and introduced the albumen paper printing technique, which became the staple process of the soon to be popular carte de visite type of photo prints.[http://wwar.com/masters/b/blanquart-evrard-louis-desire.html Louis-desire Blanquart-evrard (1802–1872) Artwork Images, Exhibitions, Reviews] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120529153839/http://wwar.com/masters/b/blanquart-evrard-louis-desire.html |date=29 May 2012 }} In September 1851 in Lille, France, with Hippolyte Fockedey, he started the Imprimerie Photographique de Lille, which was the first large scale printing company to employ a large number of employees.{{cite journal|editor1-last=Solbert|editor1-first=Oscar N.|editor2-last=Newhall|editor2-first=Beaumont|editor3-last=Card|editor3-first=James G.|title=Blanquart Evrard|journal=Image|date=March 1952|volume=1|issue=3|page=3|url=http://image.eastmanhouse.org/files/GEH_1952_01_03.pdf|accessdate=19 June 2014|publisher=International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House Inc.|location=Rochester, N.Y.|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130312194826/http://image.eastmanhouse.org/files/GEH_1952_01_03.pdf|archivedate=12 March 2013}} Blanquart-Évrard introduced to public the work of many pioneering European photographers, such as Édouard Loydreau (1820–1905), Charles Marville (1813–1879), Ernest Benecke (1817–1894), Thomas Sutton (1819–1875), and Maxime Du Camp (1822–1894). In the 1850s he became known for publishing John Stewart's views of the Pyrenees and Auguste Saltzmann's views of Jerusalem. However, the calotype process that he adopted and improved had the disadvantage of leaving a blank white sky and dark foreground, which led to artist manipulating and using multiple negatives to add clouds to the sky and make the foreground more distinct. The problem with these manipulations was that often the clouds were taken in the morning and the foreground was taken in the afternoon. Also, due to technology deficiency, photo prints were fading with time and Blanquart-Evrard's business venture had to close in 1855, losing in competition with lithographs.

Towards the end of his life, Blanquart-Evrard collaborated in color printing with Louis Ducos Du Hauron. A three-color carbon print of botanical specimens produced by Blanquart-Evrard in 1871 has survived.{{Cite book |last=Hanson |first=David |title=Edward Bierstadt: color photography and color printing |publisher=The American Printing History Association |year=2013 |pages=4}}

In 1860s, Blanquart-Evrard published several influential essays and books, including, On the intervention of art in photographyBlanquart-Evrard. On the Intervention of Art in Photography: With an Introduction by Thomas Sutton, Translated from the French by Alfred Harral. London: Sampson Low, Son & Co, 1864. and La photographie: ses origines, ses progrès, ses transformationsBlanquart-Evrard. La photographie: ses origines, ses progrès, ses transformations. Lille: Imprimerie L. Danel, 1870. where he described the first three decades of the progress of photography and formulated important for the future development of photography as a fine art theoretical and aesthetic ideas. He is now considered as a major figure of the 1850s, a golden decade in the development of photography.

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• Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Evrard, Traité de photographie sur papier, Librairie encyclopédique Roret, 1851
• Louis-Désiré Blanquart Evrard, Intervention de l'art dans la photographie, Leiber, 1864

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• [http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/1992/louis-dsir-blanquart-evrard-french-1802-1872/ Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard], The J. Paul Getty Museum

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Category:Pioneers of photography

Category:19th-century French photographers

Category:1802 births

Category:1872 deaths

Category:People from Lille