February 12, 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the photographer Janine Niépce, born February 12, 1921 in Meudon. A distant relative of the inventor of photography, Nicéphore Niépce, she was one of the first female photojournalists in France.

Janine Niépce was born into a family of Burgundian winegrowers who converted to the manufacture of airplanes, then to film sets. She joined the Resistance before studying art and archaeology, then became passionate about photography.

One of the first women in the world of photography

The year 1946 marked her entry into the world of professional photography. Influenced by Henri Cartier-Bresson, who will give her judicious advice on being a reporter, she joins Rapho in 1955.

In the second half of the twentieth century, her photographs retrace 50 years of evolution in the status of women, a disappearing agricultural life, the carefree period of the Glorious Thirty and May 1968.

A feminist, she participated in the foundation of the Family Planning Movement in the 1950s.

Janine Niépce had chosen to fix ordinary people and their daily life in black and white, a work that brought her closer to Robert Doisneau and Willy Ronis.

Publications and honors

Several books attest to her career:
– France, with texts by Marguerite Duras (1992),
– Women’s years (1993),
– My campaign years (1995),
– The harvest (2000),
– French women, French people, a taste for life, with the historian Jacques Marseille (2005).

She was made Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in 1981, Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1985. Janine Niépce was also a member of the Gens d’image, the UPC and the ANJRPC for 40 years. She died on August 5, 2007 in Paris at the age of 86.

Janine Niépce, Spéos and the Maison Niépce

From the very beginning of the intervention by Pierre-Yves Mahé (founder of the Spéos International School of Photography) to revive the house of the first photo in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes and to make it known to the general public, Janine Niépce was enthusiastic.

Janine Niépce watches with interest the progress of the work of Manuel Bonnet, a direct descendant of Nicéphore Niépce, as well as of Jean-Louis Marignier, a researcher at the CNRS, which will lead to the publication of the book Niépce, Correspondance et Papiers.

This book brings together all of Niépce’s correspondence in a 1,600-page work. It is edited by Éditions Maison Nicéphore Niépce. It is also entirely available online.

Janine Niépce signs the preface in 2003.

> See Janine Niépce’s website
> Discover the “Correspondance et Papiers de Niépce” website
> Visit the Maison Nicéphore Niépce’s website
> Learn more about Spéos International School of Photography

2019 Patrimony Days (or European Heritage Days) were held on the 21^st and 22^nd of September.

2018 Patrimony Days (or European Heritage Days) were held on the 15^th and 16^th of September.

Pyréolophore: it’s the name of the first internal combustion engine in the world, invented by Nicéphore Niépce and his brother Claude. It will officially enter into Le Musée des Arts et Métiers on Thursday, September 27, 2018, at 7pm.

The Niépce House and Spéos Photography school rectify the history of science, after many years of research: the first internal combustion engine is French!

This research was validated by the Academy of Sciences in 2015 and is the subject of a book written by Manuel Bonnet, Jean-Louis Bruley, Olivier Pironneau (introduction), and published in 2015 by the Université pour Tous de Bourgogne Centre de Chalon-sur-Saône:

Niépce, Another revolution in the shadow of the great Carnot – Essay of a reasoned bibliography of the first internal combustion engine (1806). The Pyréolophore.

The rehabilitation of the Pyréolophore was carried out thanks to the Nicéphore Niépce House, with the financing of Spéos photography school, as well as the support of Olivier Pironneau from the Académie des Sciences and Yves Winkin, director of Le Musée des Arts et Métiers.

> Know more about the Pyréolophore

> Read the notice of the Pyréolophore on the website of the Musée des Arts et Métiers

> See the video of the inauguration of the Pyréolophore at the Musée des Arts et Métiers on September 27, 2018
Find the best moments of the inauguration evening with the speeches of :
– Mr. Manuel Bonnet, direct descendant of Nicéphore Niépce,
– Mrs. Catherine Cuenca, Deputy Director of the Musée des Arts et Métiers,
– Mr. Sébastien Candel, President of the Academy of Sciences,
– Mr. Jean-Louis Bruley, associate in mechanical engineering,
– Mr. Lionel Dufaux, in charge of the Energy and Transportation collections.
Invented by the Niépce brothers, the Pyréolophore is the world’s first internal combustion engine. It joined the Energy area of the Musée des Arts et Métiers during an inauguration evening on September 27, 2018, attended by more than 200 people! Great success for the Maison Niépce and for Spéos, which crowned more than 20 years of research.

The Maison Nicéphore Niépce Museum and Spéos warmly thank :
– the Musée des Arts et Métiers,
– Mr. Olivier Pironneau, Academician,
– Mr. Francis Debras, Mayor of Saint-Loup-de-Varennes.

Every year, the “Haut Comité des commémorations nationales” presents to the Ministry of Culture and Communication a selection of about a hundred personalities, whose birthdays are celebrated in the name of the nation.

This selection is presented in a publication that has become well-known among both amateurs and professionals within the domain of French history. In 2015, it features Nicéphore Niépce, who celebrates his 250th anniversary.
Excerpt page 215 (French only):

 

Joseph-Nicéphore Niépce

Chalon-sur-Saône, 7 mars 1765
Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, 5 juillet 1833

Enfant des Lumières par excellence, Joseph Niépce naît l’année de la parution du dernier volume de texte de l’Encyclopédie.
Peut-être le futur inventeur de la photographie se déclare-t-il dans ce Nicéphore qui surgit sous sa plume en 1787, millénaire du concile de Nicée II (787) qui vit le futur patriarche de Constantinople, Nicéphore, prendre courageusement position contre l’hérésie iconoclaste.
Niépce dira avoir « travaillé à cette découverte à Cagliari », en 1797-1798.
Sa vie de clerc tonsuré enseignant au collège oratorien d’Angers, ses « courses nocturnes dans la montagne » avec la 83e demi-brigade, son passage remarqué à l’état-major de l’armée d’Italie aux côtés de Bonaparte, les heures délétères à la commission du district de Nice sous la Convention thermidorienne, tout cela appartient alors au passé.
L’avenir, pour autant que ses revenus fonciers le lui permettent, est au goût pour les sciences et techniques qu’il partage avec son frère Claude. Et à cette époque, la découverte de la photographie n’est pas prioritaire. L’idée, qui lui appartient au moins « partiellement », d’une « nouvelle machine dont le principe moteur est l’air dilaté par le feu », accapare tout son temps.
Explicitement baptisé « pyréolophore », le moteur à combustion interne est la grande affaire de leur vie. […]

Manuel Bonnet

 

The electronic version of National Commemorations 2015 will be available on the website of the Archives of France in the last quarter of 2015.

The revised online edition of Niépce, correspondance et papiers is a compilation of over 700 documents from more than 50 archives spread all over the world.
Footnotes give thousands of references; its index of names amounts to more than three thousand; equipped with a multi-criteria search engine.

Historical bits and pieces are revealed, family secrets unveiled — the collage of scientific history turns the confidences of Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833) into a captivating story.

The museum Maison Nicéphore Niépce is happy to announce the online publication of Niépce-Correspondance et papiers , with the sponsorship of the Académie des sciences and the Académie des beaux-arts, the largest number of documents ever collected on the inventor of photography (1765-1833).

In the attic of the photo museum Maison Nicéphore Niépce, Maurice Bonneviot — a notary — tells the story of the invention of photography via Niépce’s notarized letters and documents.