Description

Johann Augustin Pucher (Slovene: Janez Avguštin Puhar, 1814–1864) was a Slovene priest, scientist, photographer, artist, and poet who invented an unusual process for making photographs on glass.

When reading journals about the latest scientific findings Janez Puhar came across the Daguerreotype, photography on a copper plate with a polished silver surface. Because the process was very expensive, he made use of glass and adapted the chemicals used in the process, thereby discovering the exceptional advantages of glass. He wrote his first report of his experiments with the Daguerreotype in the newspaper Carniolia in 1841. In April 1842 he invented photography on glass, a pioneering contribution to the history of photography. He named the process the “hyalotype” (today also known as the puharotype), or svetlopis in Slovene. Puhar reported his findings in Carniolia, and in Innerösterreichisches Industrie- und Gewerbe Blatt in 1843. After Puhar’s report was published in 1851 by Vienna’s Academy of Sciences, in 1852 the National Academy of Agriculture, Manufacturing and Commerce in Paris awarded him honorary membership and a diploma recognising him as the “inventor of photography on glass”. His photographs were exhibited in London (1851), New York (1852) and Paris (1855). Very few of his original works have been preserved.

Engraver: Maja Vodlan