France, circa 1860
by Claude-Marie Ferrier

Creating photographs in the mid-1800s was a labor- intensive process that required photographers to sensitize their collodion glass-plate negatives onsite with a bath of silver nitrate and then use the plate before it dried (roughly 5 minutes). Understanding this process makes this photograph of a sailing ship entering the port at Le Havre, France even more remarkable as the Frenchman Claude- Marie Ferrier had very little time to create this image that is nearly perfect in its balance and composition.