Louis Daguerre

Latest about Louis Daguerre

Daguerreotype photography was invented by the French photographic pioneer Louis Daguerre (1789-1851) and was made public in 1839. In the Daguerreotype process a picture made on a silver surface sensitized with iodine was developed by exposure to mercury vapour. Daguerre granted the right to make and sell daguerreotype cameras to a relative of his, Alphonse Giroux of Paris. Photography thus became available to the general public in 1839 and this was the first commercially available camera, which produced the first distinctive photographic positives. It took pictures 8.5 x 6.5 inches (21.6cm x 16.5cm), a size which became known as whole-plate when later cameras were built to take photographs a fraction of the size. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

Who invented the camera, and when?

By David Clark published

Features Wondering who invented the camera? This is how Louis Daguerre gave photography to the world

Features
The world's first photograph by Joseph Niepce. Taken from a window of his Le Gras estate at Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, France, it was produced by exposing a bitumen-coated pewter plate in a camera obscura. It took an exposure time of eight hours.

When was photography invented?

By David Clark published

Features Frenchman Joseph Niepce is widely credited as the person who invented photography, nearly 200 years ago

Features
Anna Atkins Botanical Blueprints

First female photographer Anna Atkins gets her beautiful cyanotypes republished 180 years later

By Beth Nicholls published

News Anna Atkins was the first person to illustrate a book with photographic images in the form of 19th-century cyanotypes

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