The first underwater photo

The oceanographer and biologist Émile Racovitza is seen here diving with a helmeted diving suit. Photograph by Louis Boutan, taken in 1893 at Banyuls-sur-Mer.

Who took the first underwater photograph?

Although the British photographer William Thompson took photographs as early as 1856 by immersing his camera, it was the French biologist Louis Boutan who developed the techniques of underwater photography at the oceanic laboratory in Banyuls-sur-Mer (Pyrénées- Orientales).

At the end of the 19th century, in order to study marine fauna and flora, he started diving in a diving suit but found it very frustrating not to be able to bring back images.

With the help of Joseph David, a mechanic, he developed a watertight housing for his camera, with copper walls and small round windows for the lens and viewfinder.
Ingenuity is the key
But the box was not strong enough to withstand the pressure of the sea.

They came up with the idea of adding a rubber balloon filled with 3 litres of air.

The water pressure pushes the air from the submerged balloon into the box, balancing the internal and external pressures, and preventing the box from imploding.

The photos taken at a depth of 3 metres in bright sunlight are satisfactory.

However, at greater depths, the lack of light means that longer breaks of ten to thirty minutes are required.

The result is still blurred images.

The use of submersible electric lights allowed them to take pictures at 50 metres.

courtesy of Caminteresse

Louis Boutan was the first underwater photographer, who took pictures at a depth of 164 feet in 1893. Above — a self-portrait depicting Boutan in a full diving suit, airlines and metal helmet — was his first successful photo, and it offers us what a cumbersome chore it would have been to dive (and of course take pictures underwater) in those days.

Boutan, who was trained as a marine zoologist, conducted most of his underwater photo-experiments in 1890s at the Arago Marine Laboratory at Banyuls-sur-Mer, on France’s Mediterranean coast.
He identified many problems of contemporary cameras that rendered them useless in extreme conditions.
He tried encasing his cameras in strongboxes (including barrels); he tried completely flooding the interior of cameras.
Lastly, he built a watertight massive equipment that was able to withstand pressure (on land, three men were needed to lift it), and battery-powered underwater arc lights, he was able to take photographie sous-marine.
But still, there was no high speed film and his exposures lasted 30 minutes.
Boutan had to remain underwater for sometimes as long as three hours and suffered nitrogen narcosis. Eventually, Boutan used a magnesium powder “flash” that greatly hastened phototaking.

Links :

• MuseeDumas : Louis Boutan
• BNF : La photographie sous-marine de Louis Boutan