Credited to Brazil. Photography was worked out independently by several people. Niepce and Daguerre in France are generally credited with the invention, and Daguerre's process was announced in 1839. Florence's 1833 work in Brazil was isolated and unpublished, and was only confirmed by historians much later.
How it began
Hercule Florence was born in Nice, France, in 1804 and came to Brazil in 1824, where he joined the scientific expedition led by Baron von Langsdorff. He later settled in Campinas, in the interior of Sao Paulo, as a farmer, merchant and inventor. His earliest documented notes on photography are dated January 15, 1833. They show an understanding of the properties of silver nitrate, which he owed in part to his friend Joaquim Correa de Mello. By April 1833 he was calling his process photography.
Before it existed
Florence had been looking for a way to reproduce his own work. During the Langsdorff expedition he had tried to catalog the sounds of animals, a study he called zoophonie, and he wanted to publish it. Printing resources in Brazil were very limited at the time. He first devised a printing method of his own, which he named polygraphie, and then turned to sunlight as a means of making copies.
How it works
Florence used a camera obscura and paper treated with light-sensitive salts. After a long exposure he obtained negative images. His first picture, taken in January 1833, showed the window frames and tiled roof of the house opposite. He also sensitized paper with gold chloride and improved the fixing of images with ammonia. The photographs that survive are contact copies of pharmacy labels and of a Masonic diploma.
Who pushed back
Florence worked far from the scientific centers of Europe and gained no recognition in his lifetime. In 1839 he learned that the French government had honored the work of Niepce and Daguerre. He then stopped his own efforts and acknowledged that the same idea had occurred to others at the same time. His claim rested on unpublished manuscripts and was not accepted until it was tested.
What lasted
The photography historian Boris Kossoy studied Florence's manuscripts and had his procedures tested, which confirmed that Florence had a working photographic process in 1833. The manuscripts are preserved and show his early use of the word. His images from Campinas are regarded as the oldest photographic records made in the Americas. An institute in Sao Paulo now preserves and publishes his texts and drawings.
