The name was coined by Nicephore Niépce (pronounced Nee-ps) to describe the new process he had discovered, when he produced what is generally agreed to be the first photograph, in 1827.
The
solution he used for this first image was Bitumen of Judea, a derivation
of asphalt, found in Syria. It was a varnish which, when coated and dried,
hardened when exposed to light. The areas not affected by light were then
dissolved using oil of lavender and white petroleum. The light areas, then,
were shown by the bitumen, the dark ones by the bare metal.
In fact this process has greater resemblance to lithography than to photography, and though it was the first permanent method of recording an image, it was in fact a cul-de-sac as far as photography was concerned.