Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard

French, 1802-1872

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Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard was born on August 2, 1802 in Lille, France. Blanquart-Evrard made several improvements upon Fox Talbot's Calotype process: first by floating his paper on the silver solution (rather than applying it by brush), and further by switching to papers coated with albumen. By increasing the sensitivity and speed of photographic papers, he hoped to produce photographs cheaply and at industrial scale. His printing factory opened in September of 1851, and he published his "Album photographique de l'artiste et de l'amateur" with 36 plates by the end of the year. Though he went on to publish 24 photographic albums and produced numerous works for other publishers (including celebrated work by Maxime Du Camp and Auguste Salzman), his production costs remained high and his printing house closed in 1855. He continued experimenting with photography and writing on the subject, including a landmark history of its first three decades- La Photographie, ses origines, ses progrès, ses transformations (1869). He died in Lille, France on April 28, 1872.