Janez Puhar

Life & Legacy

Johann Augustin Pucher (Slovene: Janez Avguštin Puhar or Ivan Pucher; August 26, 1814 – August 7, 1864) was a Slovene priest, scientist, photographer, artist, and poet who invented an unusual process for making photographs on glass.
Although his were not the first glass photographs, Pucher's process was unique. It was the only 19th-century photography technique that was not based on expensive silver halide chemistry but was still sensitive enough to use in a camera, with exposure times comparable to those of the daguerreotype and calotype. (Other non-silver processes, such as the cyanotype, were practical only for making prints or photograms in direct sunlight.) Modern testing of Pucher's photographs has confirmed their chemically unusual nature. However, his process was never commercialized, and attempts to recreate it based on published information have been unsuccessful.