In 1999, by investigating this historical house that had remained unexplored until then, Pierre-Yves Mahé, Director at the Spéos Photography School , wanted to walk in the footsteps of Niépce, so as to rediscover the path of the man who made the very first photograph.
Put online by the Niépce House with the sponsorship of the Académie des sciences and the Académie des beaux-arts, “ Niépce correspondance et papiers ” by Manuel Bonnet and Jean-Louis Marignier contains the largest number of documents ever assembled on the inventor of photography.
The photographic studio and lab of Fortuné Joseph Petiot-Groffier is the oldest existing we know of at present (thanks to the receipts, the chemicals can be dated back as far as 1840-41). Since the summer of 2010, the last pieces of this laboratory are on show in the Nicéphore Niépce House.