The allure of aerial perspective had captivated humanity for centuries. Hot air balloons, invented in 1783, offered a tantalizing glimpse of this world from above. Yet, despite the existence of both balloons and cameras by 1816, aerial photography remained elusive for decades. But a revolutionary, albeit messy, technique known as the wet plate collodion process changed everything. This “sticky substance,” as it might be described, unlocked the potential of aerial photography, paving the way for pioneers like Nadar and James Wallace Black to capture breathtaking images from the sky.
The primary obstacle to capturing an aerial photo was the photographic process itself. Before the wet plate collodion process, photography was a cumbersome and often impractical affair. Early methods like the daguerreotype, while producing stunningly detailed images, required long exposure times, making them unsuitable for the dynamic environment of a balloon.
The wet plate process, invented in 1851 by Frederick Scott Archer, offered a crucial advantage: increased light sensitivity and shorter exposure times. This breakthrough, though technically demanding, made capturing images from a moving platform like a balloon a realistic possibility for the first time.
The wet plate process involved coating a glass plate with a sticky mixture of collodion, a cellulose nitrate solution. This sensitized plate was then placed in the camera and exposed while still wet, hence the name. The exposed plate had to be developed immediately in a portable darkroom, a significant challenge for aerial photography.
It was not long before the renowned photographer known as Nadar, whom we’ve written about previously, took notice of this innovation and saw an opportunity. His motivations for pursuing aerial photography were a mix of a fascination with aviation, artistic ambition, and entrepreneurial spirit. He submitted patent applications in 1855 for using aerial photography for surveying an mapmaking.
Three years later, after considerable experimentation and numerous challenges, Nadar successfully captured the first aerial photographs of Paris from his balloon. Although his photo no longer exists, he wet plate process, while complex, allowed him to capture relatively sharp images from the moving balloon, marking a pivotal moment in the history of photography.
Across the Atlantic, in Boston, James Wallace Black independently achieved similar success in 1860. Black, a commercial photographer, partnered with balloonist Samuel King to capture aerial views of the city. His photograph of Boston, taken from a tethered balloon, is the oldest surviving aerial photograph in existence. Housed today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it stands as a testament to the importance of wet plate process in opening up the skies to photographic exploration.
While not as advanced as the dry plate process, which would come along 20 years later, the wet plate collodion process, with its increased sensitivity and shorter exposure times, was the initial key that unlocked the potential of aerial photography. It provided the necessary technical foundation for pioneers like Nadar and Black. Their groundbreaking work, made possible by this “sticky substance,” opened our minds to the potential for future advancements in aerial imaging and our understanding of the world from above.