Daguerre

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787–1851) was a French artist and photographer best known for inventing the daguerreotype, the first widely used commercial photographic process. Born in Cormeilles-en-Parisis, Daguerre began his career as a painter and stage designer before turning to image making.

In the 1820s Daguerre partnered with Nicéphore Niépce to develop improved imaging techniques. After Niépce’s death in 1833, Daguerre continued the work and refined a method that could capture a detailed image on metal. In 1839 the French government announced the daguerreotype as a gift to the world, and Daguerre’s process was quickly adopted internationally for portraiture and documentation.

The daguerreotype process involves exposing a polished silver-plated copper sheet that has been sensitized with iodine to form silver iodide. After exposure, the latent image is developed by exposure to mercury vapor, producing a visible image. The plate is then fixed with a solution such as common salt or, later, sodium thiosulfate. The resulting image is a direct positive and highly detailed, though unique to that plate, with no readily reproducible negative. Images are typically viewed under reflected light and often mounted under glass.

Daguerre’s invention spurred rapid growth of photographic studios and a surge of pictorial documentation in the 1840s and 1850s. It gradually declined in the face of cheaper and more versatile processes, such as calotype and albumen prints. Daguerre died in Bry-sur-Marne in 1851, leaving a lasting legacy as a foundational figure in the development of photography.