Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre was co-proprietor of the Diorama in Paris as well as a stage set designer in the mid-1800’s. Daguerre was born in 1787 in Cormeilles-en-Parisis, France; a community in Northern France. Daguerre did not have much of an education when he was a child, but by the age of 52 Daguerre had revolutionized the art of capturing a moment in time.
Before his invention was patented, Daguerre teamed up with another artist who was facing similar setbacks with his art. In 1829, Daguerre coordinated his work with that of a man named Nicéphore Niépce, “who had been working on the same problem—how to make a permanent image using light and chemistry—and who had achieved primitive but real results as early as 1826” (Daniel). They signed a contract on December 14 of the year in which they began working together agreeing that Daguerre would make improvements to the camera obscura that they began with and in return, Niepce agreed to show Daguerre the process that allowed them to capture still images with said camera. Before their invention was perfected, Daguerre “admitted that the camera obscura he gave to Niepce was ineffective in producing cleared images” (Marien 13).
After Niepce’s passing in 1833, Daguerre took over his research and continued to work on perfecting the mechanism that they had spent almost half …show more content…
With Daguerre’s success he renegotiated the contract that he had made with Niepce, which was held by Niepce’s son, in order to give his father the rightful recognition for his work. Daguerre believed that he deserved his name to be known for perfecting the process, so “in 1837, Daguerre demanded and received the right to say that he was the inventor and to have the process bear his name. Niepce’s son secured his [father’s] legacy by having Daguerre agree that both photographic processes would be published together” (Marien