Web Work #2: Early Photography

Daguerre was born in Cormeilles-en-Parisis, Val-d Oise, France. He apprenticed in architecture, theatre design, and panoramic painting with Pierre Prevost, the first French panorama painter. Exceeding ly adept at his skill for theatrical illusion, he became a celebrated designer for the theater and later came to invent the Diorama, which opened in Paris in July 1822.
In 1822 Joseph Nicephore Niepce produced the world's first permanent photograph (known as a Heilograph). Daguerre partnered with Niepce three years later, beginning a four year cooperation. Niepce dies suddenly in 1833. The main reason for the partnership, as far as Daguerre was concerned, might have been connected to his already famous dioramas. Niepce was a printer and his process was based on a faster way to produce printing plates. (The resultant plate produced an exact reproduction of the scene. The image was laterally reversed, as images in mirrors are, unless a second mirror was used during exposure to flip the image. The image could only be viewed at an angle and needed protection from air and fingerprints so was encased in a glass-fronted box.) Daguerre perhaps thought that the process developed by Niepce could help speed up his diorama creation.

Daguerre announced the latest perfection of the Dauerreotypr, after years of experimentation, in 1839, with the French Academy of Sciences announcing the process on January 7 of that year. Daguerre's patent was acquired by the French Government, and, on August 19, 1839, the French Government announced the inventionwas a gift "Free to the World."
Daguerre and Niepce's son obtained a pension from the Government in exchange for freely sharing the details of the process. Daguerre died in Bry-sur-Marne, (7 mi) from Paris. A monument marks his grave there.

To view more photos and information visit http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dagu/hd_dagu.htm#slideshow1.