Late career

Despite his initial hardships in photography, Bayard continued to be a productive member of the photographic society. He was a founding member of the French Society of Photography. Bayard was also one of the first photographers to be commissioned to document and preserve architecture and historical sites in France for the Missions Héliographiques

Missions Héliographiques

Prosper Mérimée established the Missions Héliographiques in 1851 to supplement Monument historique a program he had established in 1837 to classify, protect and restore French landmarks. Mérimée, noted author of Carmen, served as France's Inspector General of Historical Monuments, and he hired...

in 1851 by the Historic Monument Commission. He used a paper photographic process similar to the one he developed to take pictures for the Commission. Additionally, he suggested combining two negatives to properly expose the sky and then the landscape or building, an idea known as combination printing

Combination printing

Combination printing is the technique of using two or more photographic images in conjunction with one another to create a single image.Combination printing was popular in the mid-19th century due to the limitations of the negative's light sensitivity and camera technology...

which began being used in the 1850s.

Famous Photographs

• Self Portrait as a Drowned Man, 1840.
• Specimens, 1842.
• Construction Worker, Paris, 1845-1847.
• Self Portrait in the Garden, 1847.

External links

• Hippolyte Bayard and Photogenic Drawing
• Hippolyte Bayard (Getty Museum)