The first practical photographic process: a silvered copper plate sensitized with iodine, exposed in a camera, developed in mercury vapor and fixed with salt, producing a single finely detailed positive. Announced by the French government in 1839 as a gift to the world, it made portrait studios a global business within a decade.
Facts
Introduced Year OriginDeveloped by Louis Daguerre from his partnership with Nicephore Niepce; announced publicly in Paris, 1839. William Henry Fox Talbot announced his rival paper negative process the same year. 1 FAQs
Was Louis Daguerre the sole inventor of photography?
No. Daguerre built on his late partner Nicephore Niepces earlier work, and Britains William Henry Fox Talbot announced a rival paper-negative process that same year, 1839.
No single person invented photography alone. Daguerre developed the daguerreotype from his partnership with Nicephore Niepce, who had produced an early permanent photographic image years earlier but died in 1833 without living to see the process announced. The daguerreotype was announced by the French government in 1839, the same year the English scientist William Henry Fox Talbot announced his own, rival paper-negative process, so two independently developed photographic methods emerged in the same year.
Connections
Associated With
Developed By
Built on the earlier experiments of his partner Nicephore Niepce.
Source National Science and Media Museum Official Site
In Medium
Source National Science and Media Museum Official Site
Sources
1. National Science and Media Museum Official Site
National Science and Media Museum, Science Museum GroupNational Science and Media Museum, "Faster photographs: Electroplate and the daguerreotype", What is a daguerreotype section
The daguerreotype was one of the first photographic processes, announced in 1839 by Frenchman, Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre.
- In Medium: Photography
- Developed By: Louis Daguerre
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