On August 19th, 1839, at the French Legislature, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787 - 1851) was accredited with the first commercially viable photographic process: the Daguerreotype.
The French Government was given rights for Daguerreotypes in exchange for lifetime pensions for Daguerre and the son of his late coinventor Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833).
On the same day, in an act of artistic imperialism to confirm their leadership of the artistic world, the French Government gave those rights, together with complete working instructions for the Daguerreotype, “free to the world” (except for their rival, England).
There were many who claimed to have created a photographic process but really there were only a couple of other serious contenders. One of them, Henry Fox Talbot, an English gentry polymath, created photographic imagery (the Calotype) that used a negative/positive process that at the time it was held up by technical and legal issues. However, it eventually became the basis for film processing we use today.
Today, it is hard to comprehend the power of this invention. Hitherto, people would not know what their distant family or predecessors looked like, unless they could afford a portrait. The photograph made that possibility available to an ever-increasing part of society.
The announcement of the invention of photography changed the world forever. It provided not only images of loved ones, it recorded significant (and not so significant) events, gave us a much more graphical view of the world and gave millions the chance to explore their creativity.
My (in progress) presentation of the history of photography - technical
cheers, TREVOR
The mark of good photographer is less what they hold in their hand, it's more what they hold in their head;
"All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow", Leo Tolstoy;
"Skill in photography is acquired by practice and not by purchase" Percy W. Harris
