Janez Puhar

Johann Pucher
Self-portrait, copy of glass photograph, National Museum of Slovenia, Ljubljana
Born	August Johann Pucher August 26, 1814 Kranj, Slovenia
Died	August 7, 1864 Kranj, Slovenia
Other names	Janez Avguštin Puhar
Occupation	Priest, inventor, photographer

Johann Augustin Pucher (Slovene: Janez Avguštin Puhar or Ivan Pucher; 26 August 1814 – 7 August 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.

Pucher was born in Kranj on 26 August 1814. At the time, the present-day Slovenia was part of the Austrian Empire and was called the Duchy of Carniola.

As a schoolchild, Pucher was interested in art, languages, and the natural sciences, especially chemistry and physics. He wanted to study art, but obeyed his mother's wish and became a Catholic priest. However, he continued to experiment in photography, art, and music. When the French Academy of Sciences announced the invention of the daguerreotype on 19 August 1839, Pucher quickly mastered the process, but it was too expensive, so he developed his own way of making photographs. On 19 April 1842, he invented a photographic process on glass that he called the hyalotype, or "svetlopis" in Slovene. His photos are also called puharotypes, in his honor. The first report about his invention was published in the newspaper Carniolia in 1841.