The Daguerreotype

Louis Jacques MandT Daguerre was born in 1789 and died in 1851, the year when his process began to give way to the wet collodion process. Daguerre was born in Cormeilles-en-Parisis, Seine-et-Oise, France. He was originally a scene painter in the theater, and in 1822 he established the Diorama, a theatrical spectacle that required large panoramic paintings. He would achieve accurate details and perspective in these huge paintings with the use of basic sketches he made with the aid of a camera obscura, a means of projecting a scene through a pinhole to reproduce it on a wall. Daguerre wanted to make the camera obscura images permanent with a light-sensitive substance. Whatever early experiments he may have made have been lost, and the first report of any success comes in 1829 when Daguerre learned that Joseph NicTphore Niepce was working on the same problem and had had some success. The two met and agreed to a partnership. Niepce had been working for several years on an asphalt process, and Daguerre decided it was impractical. Niepce died in 1833. Daguerre returned to Niepce's e

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rre had been successful. By 1837, though, Daguerre had made a highly successful photograph of a still life of plaster casts, a wicker-covered bottle, a framed drawing, and a drapery. This photograph is fully detailed and shows a wide range of tones between highlight and shadow. It exists to this day in the collection of the SociTtT Frantaise de Photographie in Paris. This is the earliest surviving example of what would become known as the daguerreotype, and it shows the potential of this new graphic medium. The daguerreotype process was announced at a meeting of the Academy of Sciences by the astronomer and physicist Arago. Daguerre was appointed an officer of the Legion of Honor. In 1839, the Diorama burned, and Daguerre and Niepce's son Isidore were unable to sell the daguerreotype process to pay debts. They accepted pensions for life from the French government in exchange for the invention, and by the end of the year daguerreotypes were being made all over the world. Daguerre took no part in improvements that were made in the process over the next several years but retired to a country home outside of Paris, where he died in 1851. The essential process, as noted, was based on the light sensitivity of silver iodide. A
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1750
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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