Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was a French artist and scientist who invented the Daguerreotype - the first practical system of photography. He was born in Cormeilles-en-Parisis, France on 18 November, 1787 and died 10 July, 1851, in Bry-sur-Marne.
In his early career, Daguerre had been a tax man, and a operatic scenery painter. From 1822, with Charles-Marie Bouton, Daguerre had been running an exhibition known as the Diorama. The Diorama showed huge (~14x22 metres) paintings of places and events, which were combined with lighting effects, 3D models and real objects to produce spectacular illusions of realism. Daguerre had been making his initial studies for paintings by using a Camera Obscura and experimenting with methods of recording the image, but without much effect. In 1826, interested in improving production of his Dioramas, he was introduced by a Parisian optician to Joseph Nicéphore Niépce - a printer who had made the first permanent photographic images. For a few years, Daguerre corresponded with Niépce; in 1829 they formed a partnership to work on a photographic process. In 1833, before much progress was made, Niépce died, and his place was taken by his son, Isidore. Little more was achieved until Daguerre (possibly by chance) discovered that a latent image could be produced on a surface covered in silver iodide, and that the image could be developed by mercury vapour. By 1837 it had been found that the image could be made permanent after washing in a salt solution.
On 9 January 1839, a description of the Daguerreotype process was announced at a meeting of the Academy of Sciences. In 1839, the French Government were given the rights to the Daguerreotype and Niépce's Heliograph processes in return for Daguerre and Niépce's son being awarded, respectively, pensions of 6,000 and 4,000 francs. Daguerre was also appointed to the Légion d'honneur. On 19 August 1839, the Government published details, giving the process "free to the World" - with the exception of Great Britain, where a patent had been granted (No.1839-8194) on the 14th, five days before the publication. The patent meant that a royalty was payable for use of it in the British Empire; this both inhibited use of the Daguerreotype and encouraged evolution of other processes.
Daguerre wrote a best-selling pamphlet - Historical and Descriptive Account of the Various Processes of the Daguerreotype and the Diorama. This went through many editions, and translations into other languages appeared through late 1839. His process spread rapidly across most of the globe. He went on to design a wooden camera Le Daguerreotype - to be made by Alphonse Giroux and developed into a series of similar cameras.
The English rights to make Daguerreotypes were bought for £150 per annum by businessman Richard Beard, and in June of 1841 he obtained outright Daguerre's patent rights in England. Beard opened London's first studio on 23 March 1841 on the roof of the Royal Polytechnic Institution (now the University of Westminster) in Regent Street, London. Beard became immensely rich on proceeds from this and later studios and his patent rights. A second London studio was opened very shortly after Beard's, by Antoine Claudet on the roof of the Royal Adelaide Gallery, off the Strand. Claudet had purchased a license directly from Daguerre, in conflict with Beard's. It is reported that many early English Daguerreotypes do not show the name of the photographer, as a number were using the process without paying any license fee or royalties.
Sources
- "Daguerre, Louis-Jacques-Mandé." - Encyclopædia Britannica, 2008. (via Encyclopædia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD)
- Coe, Brian, Cameras, from Daguerreotypes to Instant Pictures, Nordbok, 1978
- Wills, Camfied & Dierdre Wills, History of Photography - Techniques and Equipment, Hamlyn, 1980.
