The origins of photography in Sardinia

Alghero, the Maddalena bastions. Photo by Max Leopold Wagner, from Sardegna DL

In the mid-19th century, Sardinia, which had long been a destination for scholars and explorers, also began to attract the pioneers of photography. The local press of the time immediately showed great attention in documenting the events of the newborn photographic art.
In particular, the “Sardinian Indicator” that on 13 July 1839, a few months after the official invention, published a long article on the daguerreotype on the front page and in the following years did not neglect to report the arrival of various photographers, including the Parisian Claude Porraz, whose laboratory was the first in the city and on the entire island.
Unfortunately, there is no trace of the activity of these first photographers, as well as of the presumed successful experiments of Nicéphore Niépce (universally recognized as the father of photography), carried out at the end of the 18th century, during his stay in Cagliari as an officer in the French army.
The oldest photographic documentation of Sardinia currently known consists of forty calotypic negative prints made in 1854 by the Frenchman Edouard Delessert to illustrate the travel diary “Six Weeks in the Ile de Sardigne”. His images are characterized by the almost total absence of the human figure, with the exception of the probable self-portrait against the background of a panoramic view of Cagliari.
This lack of presence was not intentional, as has generally been said, but due to the very long exposure times typical of older procedures, through which it was not possible to fix moving elements: at least two shots clearly show “ghost images”, confused halos that are nothing more than the wake of the movement of people during the shooting (“Oristano, Porte d'Entrée”, “Sassari, Porte S. Antonio”), while in other two, immovable figures are clearly distinguishable (“Cagliari, Rue d'Jena”, “Cagliari, Stampaccio door”).

Update

9/7/2025 - 15:40