Pioneer photographers

Ben Dugan
GCN Historical Writer

Serving an important part in capturing the West

  Pioneer photography stems from the early development of producing images as a science and technology. Primitive methods of photography were utilized as innovation and experimentation gave way to the camera methods we know today.

  Joseph Neipce, in France, succeeded in producing the first permanent photographic image in the 1820’s. Niepce’s imagery required a very long exposure time and was quite impractical for normal photography. He entered into a partnership with painter Louis Daguerre in 1829. Daguerre had introduced the diorama in 1822. The Diorama was a spectacular illusion for theatre in which huge translucent paintings were given dramatic effect by changing the direction, intensity and color of the lighting and by movement. In 1833 Neipce died and all agreements between the two men passed to Neipce’s son. Daguerre continued with experiments without the younger Neipce’s assistance. He had continued to work with metal plates and discovered that a silver plate, after careful polishing, could be made light-sensitive by exposing it to iodine vapor. To make the image permanent unused silver iodide was removed using a strong hot salt solution.   The Daguerreotype process was published in August 1839 and could be used freely throughout the world. Improvements were made in the following years and in 1851 Frederick Scott Archer formulated a new collodion wet-plate process. A gelatin dry plate was also developed and in 1855 J.N. Taupenot published details of a process using sensitized layers of both albumen and collodion. The collodion-albumen plate was very slow, but capable of fine resolution. Doctor Richard Leach Maddux was the first person to satisfactorily utilize the dry-plate process. He found that the ether vapor of the wet-collodion  process affected his poor health. He searched for another solution and found that gelatin could be used as a sizing agent used in the preparation of papers suitable for the Calotype process. A folding dry-plate camera was neatly compact when closed. Before George Eastman invented the Kodak Camera in 1881, which also utilized a dry plate process,  many pioneer photographers from California to Oregon to Utah and Colorado documented to West in its early days.

  Matthew Brady photographed the Civil War with primitive equipment in the East. William Henry Jackson and many others also used pioneer camera equipment in documenting the growth of a nation. As demand grew various photographers set up studios in populated mining camps. Denver was also a base for studios including those of George Wakely, William Henry Jackson, The Duhem Brothers, Joseph Collier (after 1878) and many others. Each studio had a plate wagon pulled by a horse in which to process the plates with chemicals on-site. Many historic photographs show the photographers wagon in the frame. Many early mining camps came and went and the photographs were the only record of its existence. Empire and North Empire were detailed and documented by George Wakely in 1864 as was Central City. None of the wooden structures in the North Empire photo exist anymore. In the Empire [1864] photograph only a few of the buildings still remain. One of the oldest buildings in Empire still stands. It is currently a restaurant on Route 40 and has seen few changes since Empire’s pioneer days. The same building in 1946 housed the Empire Café with gas pumps outside to serve the automobile traffic that Route 40 brought into town. Early Central City and Nevadaville views were also captured by George Wakely and Henry Faul. Joseph Collier emerged as one of early Colorado’s premier photographers. He came from Scotland and started a photography studio in Central City in 1871 and later sold out to Charles Weitfle to move to Denver. Weitfle had studios in Denver and Central City. He traveled the state for five years documenting the states many scenic wonders including views of various mining camps. Many of Colliers glass plates were destroyed in the fire of 1874. Later, after his death, many of his glass plates were given to a greenhouse owner. A hailstorm broke many of the greenhouse windows and Collier’s glass negatives were used to replace the glass panes.

  These photographers served an important part in capturing the youth and expanse of the West.