Niepce, Joseph Nicéphore

Niepce, Joseph Nicéphore (zhôzĕf` nēsāfôr` nyĕps), 1765–1833, French chemist who originated a process of photography (see photography, still). In 1826 he produced the first known photograph, which he called a heliograph, using bitumen of Judea (a form of asphalt) on on a pewter plate. From 1829 he worked with Louis Daguerre, who perfected the process after the death of Niepce. A nephew,

Claude Felix Abel Niepce de Saint-Victor, 1805–70, also a chemist, was the first to use albumen in photography and also produced photographic engravings on steel.