Parisian bureaucrat by day and tireless inventor after hours, Hippolyte Bayard (French, 1801-1887) was one of the most important, if lesser-known, pioneers of photography. During his thirty-year career, he invented the direct positive process and several other photographic techniques on paper. This exhibition journeys back to the 19th century to unveil a collection of Bayard’s delicately crafted photographs, offering an extraordinarily rare glimpse into his unique processes, subjects, and persistent curiosity. He brought an artistic sensitivity into capturing the first staged self-portraits and set precedents for photography as we know it today.
Hippolyte Bayard
A Persistent Pioneer
9 April 2024 – 7 July 2024
Getty Center
1200 Getty Center Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90049
https://www.getty.edu
Still Life with Statuettes, 1839, Hippolyte Bayard. Direct positive print. Getty Museum
Three Feathers, 1842–43, Hippolyte Bayard. Cyanotype. Getty Museum
In Bayard’s Studio, about 1845, Hippolyte Bayard. Salted paper print. Getty Museum
Four Women Seated Outdoors, about 1840–49, Hippolyte Bayard. Salted paper print. Getty Museum
View of Rooftops and the Vendôme Column, about 1846, Hippolyte Bayard. Salted paper print. Getty Museum
Windmills of Montmartre, 1842, Hippolyte Bayard. Salted paper print. Getty Museum
Portrait of a woman, about 1861, Bayard & Bertall. Albumen silver print. Getty Museum
