The First Photo of the Sun by Leon Foucault and Louis Fizeau, 1845. 
To be confirmed. ©  From ‘Until Proven Otherwise’ series by Francesca Seravalle

‘Until Proven Otherwise/ On the Evidence of the First Photos’ is an exhibition of a research that has allowed you to interact with archives, curators and institutions. How did the idea occur to you to do a project on “First Photos”?

Francesca Seravalle (FS): Everything started with a simple question that occurred to me while I was looking up pictures for different researches on Google image: “What was the first photo uploaded on the internet?”. Hence I started my research of First Photos (from 1820 up until today) focusing on 4 trails: photographic inventions, scientific and technological discoveries, historic happenings and first sights of nature. I was excited by the unveiling of a lot of unknown photography that has been ignored by books on the history of photography. Their esthetic amazed me: I imagined what kind of effect they must have had on the people who saw them for the first time. Since then I have found a lot of First Photos. I noticed that research on the internet has its limits and that it is not entirely reliable. I therefore sought to compare the sources and their authors by expanding my research to books in order to prove their authenticity. Nonetheless, I’ve also been able to identify mistakes in traditional manuals of the history of photography. These are a result of historians basing their research on that of others and thus not being able to personally verify the sources. For example, there is still an inaccurate attribution of the invention of the word photography: it isn’t the Englishman Herschel but Hercules Florence, a Frenchman who was settled in Brazil.

The first time the word “Photography” has been written, by Hercules Florence 1832, one of the photographic pioneers and the inventor of the word Photography, Until Proven Otherwise. The first image is also the first photocopy ever did. Hercules Florence, originally drawing and typographer, was looking to create a photographic technic useful to copy many documents, as well the labels for his friend pharmacist Mr. Mello. The main interest of Florence was the zoophonie: the record of the birdsongs in the jungle. More info and photos © Instituto Moreira Salles. 

‘Until Proven Otherwise’, are images that immediately have a true process of “authenticity”. Could you talk about the stages and the dynamics of acquiring proof?

FS: I started by means of constructing a list of the technological photographic processes. Moreover, I tried to contact all the inventors available who could give me proof of authenticity to ask information on the picture in question (the first Photoshop, the first PNG, the first screenshot, etc…). This is how I learned that a lot of information found for example on Wikipedia and in the papers is wrong, such as the first photo to emerge on the Web.

On the other hand I have contacted curators, museums and institutes spread across the continents (the Senior Curator of the V&A, the National Media Museum, the Institute Lumière, the Societé Française de la Photographie, the Talbot Museum, the Getty Institute, the George Eastman Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Archive of Modern Conflict, the Franklin Institute, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, etc…) to acquire proof and to ask for help in regard to certain researches. Whenever possible I have done research in their private archives to accumulate unpublished material and to discover new First Photos.

I’ve started to gather and verify the stories behind every First Photo which revealed to me that even the most famous ones have reliable and proven stories which haven’t been told in the books on the history of photography. Like the mosaic of Ravenna being the source of inspiration for the pixel. Or “Boulevard du Temple” of Daguerre, one of the historically most famous photographs of the first photographed person: It was part of a triptych donated to the prince of Munich from Bavaria which was relocated during the Second World War as a security measure to a “location protected from potential bombardments”. This, however, did not prove to be a suitable atmosphere. The triptych turned black and the restorer who attempted to intervene only caused more damage. Luckily, Getty preserves an analogue daguerreotype copy, since Newhall had asked one for the publication of his book on the history of photography. This case proves to be only one of many (There is also that one of the view of the rooftops by Niépce for example) where the copy becomes important and a unicum replaces the original. 

Boulevard du Temple, Paris, 3rd arrondissement, Daguerreotype. Believed to be the earliest photograph showing a living person. It is a view of a busy street, but because the exposure time was at least ten minutes the moving traffic left no trace. Only the two men near the bottom left corner, one apparently having his boots polished by the other, stayed in one place long enough to be visible. Note that, as with most daguerreotypes, the image is a mirror image. 

This is a project of great importance, also from a historic point of view. According to you, how come many of these images have not been mentioned in books on the history of photography up until now? 

FS: When I showed my research to a lot of curators and museum directors, it came to my attention that only a few knew the images, in the same respect that the history of photography (same as the history of art) is the history of the authors, not the technicians or inventors. We all live in a digital world and see pixels daily on our cell phones, on our camera and on our computer. No one knows, however, that Pixel stands for “Picture element”. Nor do they know its inventor, Russel Kirsch, or why he chose to give that particular structure to the pixel and why it was invented in 1957. Even though I’ve had an education in the history of art, the history of technology provokes an immense intellectual and esthetic fascination in me. Probably because I chose Ando Gilardi as professor, whose assistant I was for a short period.

I noticed how the history of the process of technology engages with a wider audience than photography enthusiasts and professionals: anyone is interested in seeing the first photograph made with a cell phone, the first photograph of Earth, the first photograph published in a paper, the first one with pixels, the first Polaroid or the first photograph made of Italy.

My aim is to liberate photographs such as those of Niépce and Daguerre of an existence as pictures in books on history of photography that are smothered under the weight of the text. No one lingers on these images while they still have a lot to say.

© Francesca Seravalle. Commissioned by the cultural association Planar - Until Proven Otherwise become an exhibition in the street of Bari, an Urban Intervention.

That’s why I’ve decided to take them to the streets and show them to non-experts. Next to the fact that the correlation between the high use of images in our society in regard to the ignorance of the history of photography is astonishing to me. Most people use a self-taught language without knowing its history. While anyone knows the name of Michelangelo and Raffaello or Picasso, few would be capable to give a name of a photographer, whichever one.

Could you explain how the first photos are always representatives of their time? What link is there between the photographer and its subject? Could one, in addition, find an esthetic connection between all those photographs, other than the fact that they are “First Photos”?

FS: During the preparation of the exhibition’s layout for the FORMAT International Photography Festival (UK), where I won the first price, the Paul Hill Award, and while I was designing the rendering of the walls, the showcases and the study tables, I realized how there could be esthetic connections between all those first photographs. I’ve developed esthetic theories in semantic groups and worked on texts that could clarify the comprehension while being minimally graphical and strongly conceptual.

I was reading an article in an American magazine Aperture where they had compared two first photos (Niépce and the one on the Web), which stated that the first photos did not have a subject nor an esthetic interest. I have consulted the archive of images that I’ve gathered up until now and started to theorize on the esthetic connections between them. This is how I discovered that there are in fact connections between the photographed subject and the inventor. A test shot of a photographic device focuses generally on something that the inventor has an intimate relationship with. It demonstrates a documentation of everyday life: the subjects consist of wives, children and the interior or views from their house or studio, if it even wasn’t themselves or their hand. They have an authentic relationship with their time. Like our family photo albums, they lack a “glamour” filter. However, in case of an invention regarding a new development in technique of color, the subjects often are landscapes or leaves, seeing that these provide a more visible display of color.

‘The First known surviving Photo produced in camera’ also called “View of the Window at Le Gras”, by Niépce 1826. This is generally considered the First Photo ever made in most of the book about History of Photography. There are many studies about that photo and specially about its re-discovery by Helmut and Alison Gernsheim in 1952, that I can’t sum up here. The image we normally know (the 4°) is far from the original on bitumen of Judea (the 1°, color digital print reproduction made in June 2002). Helmut Gernsheim draw the latent image on a paper to make it visible and than, on a reproduction made in gelatin silver print, in collaboration with the Kodak Laboratory, he spent two days painting in watercolor small dots as pointillism style to enforce the image. The last image is a “computer image depicting the original scene “because of an arrangement the Niepce’s house/museum has with a well-known photo agency, photography is not allowed inside the house.” Sometimes a copy become more known than the original. © The Ransom Center / Gernsheim Collection

I noticed that some photographs that documented historical moments for the first time are either very raw, such as the first photographs of a concentration camp that surfaced clandestinely showing the horror of whom had taken them, or very difficult to read; the first photograph of the earth taken by a satellite: unrecognizable! At any rate, the first photos have first and foremost the revelational ability of being unique and of recording a first experience in history.

You have decided to introduce your project at an exhibition by the end of September in Bari, near Planar, in the open air around the city. Could you talk to us about the transition from the research to the exposition? How did the idea of the exhibition evolve?

FS: When in Bari the Planar association invited me to do the exhibition, I thought about doing it on the territory. I proposed shutters that could interact with the urban pattern of Bari. There is an assembly of architectural photographers, such as Antonio Ottomanelli who is the founder of Planar, and also of landscape photographers connected to Planar. Linking this knowledge to Bari being a city with a marvelous urban structure and architecture, I envisioned the exhibition as an adjustment to the streets of Bari by means of a proper Urban Intervention and by creating itineraries of an open-air museum. This does not entail the mere enlargement of a photo glued at the side of the street but I tried to create a trompe-l'oeil of continuity between photography and architecture, images and city landscapes. 

© Francesca Seravalle, Urban Intervention, Bari, 2015

With this operation the project has obtained a particular value because never before has my intent of bringing images of public domain to the general public been materialized.

The desired interaction with the city and its inhabitants has undeniably been an interesting element. Was the choice for Bari characterized by motives based on the city planning, the architecture or the landscape?

FS: Initially I “lived on Google maps” for a while, searching for streets and buildings that inspired me and which could be suited for this kind of operation. The people of Planar (Antonio Ottomanelli, Anna Vasta, Francesco Stelitano e LetiziaTrulli) proposed a neighborhood where their “quartiere Libertà” is located. The area is very interesting because it’s an abandoned Old town where all the stores are now closed considering that the concentration of activities moved to the big commercial centers outside town life. I was interested in creating an operation in an area that has directly been affected by gentrification, bringing “the history of photography” to the streets and exhibiting it in a lively and well-known neighborhood. I was also a little tired of the usual photography circles (the Milanese, those from London and from Paris, in the end they remain “circles”) and personal projects. I was intrigued by the search for a different audience. Also because as a curator I always think of how the “people” perceive the work, if it’s enjoyable etc… I tried to operate in a way that didn’t use a lot of ideas but clear and big ones. Simplicity, the effectiveness and the dialogue with the outside environment - eliminating every redundant aspect - were the foundations of my work. With the triptychs and diptychs that animate the itinerary through the streets, I sought to reflect the effect that many images had had on me.

Have you had any peculiar reactions to the billposting of certain images around the city? Could you reveal some to us?

FS: I have curated exhibitions at Foam, at The Photographers Gallery, at MART and at other museums where the photos are protected from the judgment and reactions from people. I have noticed, however, that the streets are an interesting and fertile scene where the public truly reacts without any inhibitions.

The first photo of a kiss in sequence. Eadweard Muybridge, 1872-85. ©  From ‘Until Proven Otherwise’ series by Francesca Seravalle

During the operation of the posting, the immediate connection with people was very compelling: little old men who explained to me how to better apply the glue, a little girl who gave me flowers, a man who offered me his ladder, storekeepers who asked me to include their shutters, people who thanked me. It was truly a beautiful human experience. Also, something I have never seen in my life: a photograph (one of Jesus Christ) has received in ex voto two paintings of Madonna. I had never expected that much interaction with people on the streets. Furthermore, the poster of Muybridge depicting the first kiss photographed in sequence has been torn up twice: the first time at the hour of the inauguration, for which we had done a pasting performance during the tour, and the second time the day after that, probably because it portrays two naked women kissing. Nevertheless, that act of tearing up has been an important social reaction for me and it has shown me a demonstration of how strong that image and the context still is. 

© Francesca Seravalle, Urban Intervention, Bari, 2015

The most interesting aspect is that with this urban operation a photograph “comes back to life” after 150 years. It is given meaning again because in the streets it acquires a different value. The context of the streets is a context in motion where all the contemporary debates merge. When a work enters a museum, it loses its “scuff marks” of contemporaneity. It arrives in an atemporal seal. Besides, in Italy, the street is still unmistakably a meeting place and a place of exchange, reflecting the contrasts of today’s society. The photo wouldn’t have had the same effect in a museum. The street is a sensitive, living and fertile environment.

‘Until Proven Otherwise / On the Evidence of the First Photos’ is an ongoing project. How will it evolve?

FS: At the moment, the project is undergoing a digression into a new project called ‘Everything has its first time’ where the obsession with the First engages other media and inventions. For example, now, I’m focusing on the first times in cinema. From that experience emerged the video ‘Secret Communication’ that has been selected by Photo50 “Feminine Masculine”, the exhibition curated by Federica Chiocchetti for the London Art Fair. With ‘Secret Communication’ I pay homage to Hedy Lemarr, an actress (who has performed the first female orgasm in the history of cinema) and the inventor of the “Secret Communication System” (the prototype of wifi that was created to interfere with the launch of Nazi torpedoes). I also pay homage to the non verbal communication between men and women, to the aggravation created by the film ‘Ecstasy’ where the video is a clip from, to the auditory interference of the first attempts to record sound (1850-1857) which have only been recently deciphered. For the first time I didn’t stop at operating graphically but I was also involved in the synchronizing of Matchy’s cinematic work with the audio of Edouard-Léon Scott de Martinville (the first guitar chord, the first recorded voice etc..). Those recordings prior to those of Edison have only recently been discovered by the First Sound Organization. The problem is that those first seven years of recording attempts only resulted in interferences. The messages were unintelligible. Thus, the recordings were not officially recognized. I wanted to insert them into the video of Matchy, because the recognition of their interference would confirm their existence (Disturbo Ergo Sum), even if their message isn’t apprehensible. This is my homage to the beauty of failure and the imperfection of first attempts, to the uniqueness and their necessity in the process of research.

The project can be viewed on its website. Could you imagine your performance in book form?

FS: There is still a lot of work in terms of creating a book. There are over 150 images and the majority are public domain by law or are World Heritage, such as the images of scientific discoveries. The real problem, however, is to find the time to write and to provide documentary evidence for the 150 images while continuing the investigations with the inventors. More than one publishing house would be interested in the book but I still have to continue the research. I would certainly like to free the photographs from the weight of history and text. Seeing that I have always been agonized by the didactic relationship of the images with the texts provided in books on the history of photography, I would give them an esthetic independence. In the meantime I continue to post articles on the blog.

The First Photo Book from “Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions” by Anna Atkins, 1843. Confirmed. © Francesca Seravalle, Urban Intervention, Bari, 2015

In the world of art today, the roles and boundaries between the artist and the curator, before well established, are becoming more obscure. How do you see yourself in regard to your project?

FS: I always consider myself a curator and researcher first. It isn’t my intention to define myself as an artist. Also because, in reference to an artistic research, one is more indulgent and can be more personal than with a historical research.

However, I don’t believe that conflicts exist between the researcher, the curator and the artist, especially not with my work method as a curator or, more precisely, as artist development. In my work process I’m interested in discovering new talent and in working together towards a realization of projects by means of a process of maieutics and self-awareness of one’s stylistic identity. In this process I participate by stimulating the artist to do research and experiments or by establishing artistic parallels and reflections. I curate the project for about two to three years, from the beginning to the end of the production and promotion of the book and the exhibitions. Naturally, I do this only for projects I’m “committed to intellectually and artistically”, such as was the case with Dalston Anatomy by Lorenzo Vitturi (SpBH) and Alex & Me by James Pfaff (now on print by Montanari).

Lorenzo Vitturi on Dalston Anatomy, an exhibition at The Photographers’ Gallery

With ‘Until Proven Otherwise’ I managed to merge the different professional personas that I have developed during the last ten years into one unique figure: archivist, researcher, curator, writer and producer. This work in progress is an experiment that, for the first time, has allowed me to produce and realize a project that has been mine from start to finish. Whereas before I have always collaborated with other artists.

I worked with a shortage of the original and made its limits work to my advantage. I can assure that seeing large posters of portraits originated by the daguerreotype, instead of small and precious originals, helps the public to relate to it with more ease. Furthermore, I’ve noticed that, by eliminating the corporeality of the original, you can guide the interest towards the composition and the graphics of the image. Ultimately, after the research, I used the photographs as graphic elements to support my esthetic theories.

Text translated by Robin Geldhof

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Francesca Seravalle 
Italy