Daguerreotype

Daguerreotype, invented by Joseph Nicephore Niepce and Louis Jacques Daguerre, a French landscape painter and illusionist stage-set creator, is a method of photography invented in 1839, now considered the first practical photographic process. Daguerreotype is a type of photograph made on a silver-coated copper surface.<br><br>One of the key factors in the success of Daguerreotypes was the promotion by the French government to counter publicity of a similar process created by Englishman William Henry Fox Talbot. <br><br>Daguerreotype was first used by John C. Fremont in 1842, who was an expedition leader that helped prove daguerreotype valuable in documenting explorations of the American West for the U.S. government. Daguerreotypes had been made popular by the 1850s, with millions of portraits being made around the world. However, the process was expensive, the plates were fragile, they were difficult to copy, and they required lengthy exposure times. By 1860, Calotype photography had replaced the Daguerreotype.<br>