Gustave Le Gray

Gustave Le Gray (1820–1884) is known as the most important French photographer of the nineteenth century because of his technical innovations in the still new medium of photography, his role as the teacher of other noted photographers, and the extraordinary imagination he brought to picture making.The Getty-Le Gray

Le Gray was originally trained as a painter, studing under Paul Delaroche, but crossed over to the new medium of photography in the early years of its development. He was more than just a photographer he expanded this new medium with his technical inventions. One of the most defining is that of the waxed-paper negative. This invention he developed and perfected in France around 1849 as stated in A World History Of Photography by Naomi Rosenblum.A World History of Photography Le Gray had also worked out a collodion process at the same time, but did not publish either discovery until 1851. This resulted in the collodion technology being accredited to Frederick Scott Archer who discovered his process in 1850 and then published it in 1851.

Later in life Le Gray expanded his horizons by touring the Mediterranean with the writer Alexandre Dumas, père. Le Gray then carried on to Lebanon and ending his journeys in Egypt where he became a professor of drawing. He died in 1884 in Cairo.

Some his work can been seen atThe Getty-Le Gray

See also

• List of most expensive photographs

External links

• Selection of Le Gray's seascapes