Daguerreotypes, the first public form of photography, were invented by French artist Louis Daguerre in collaboration with Joseph Niépce. Niépce took the first photograph in 1826, but Daguerre perfected the process, which was announced to the public in 1839. The process was released free worldwide, except in Great Britain where Daguerre had registered a patent. Daguerreotypes were popular and over 3 million were made in the US alone in 1850.
Daguerreotypes were the first public form of photography. They were invented by Louis Daguerre, a French artist, after years of collaboration with Joseph Niépce, inventor and chemist. Niépce is credited with taking what is considered the first photograph, in 1826. The image required at least eight hours of exposure to create and was composed of a view from Niépce’s window. After Niépce’s death, Daguerre continued to perfect a process that took much less time to fix an image on silver-plated copper sheet. The daguerreotype was announced to the public in 1839. Since capturing a daguerreotype originally took up to 20 minutes, neck clamps were often used to hold the subject of a portrait still so as not to blur the final image.
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Louis Daguerre received a lifetime pension from the French government in exchange for his invention. The process was released free to the world soon after it was announced.
The only exception to the worldwide diffusion of the daguerreotype process was Great Britain. Daguerre had registered a patent for the process there.
Daguerreotypes have been extremely popular for several decades. More than 3 million were made in 1850 in the United States alone.
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