In the 19th century painting reached a technical level that is still considered excellence today. Through the use of different painting techniques and styles, painters around the world were able to create masterpieces that are comparable to the quality and realisticness of modern day photographs, yet the price and effort needed to create or duplicate these paintings was still much too expensive for anybody but the upper-class to obtain. Seeing this need from society, scientists, artists, and inventors worked tirelessly to perfect a technology that used a known natural phenomenon to “catch and imprint” a light image onto a surface indefinitely. 

The industrial revolution made it possible for a larger amount of wealth distribution among the various economic classes. For the first time in history the middle-class began to grow at a rapid pace, allowing many to be able to have more leisure time and partake in activities for enjoyment. In particular, many people aspired to have painted or drawn portraits made for them to own, but were out of reach of being able to commission a painting of themselves or a loved one. This led to the increased demand for a technology that would be able to replace illustrations or paintings in order to display an image to the public. Scientists had been familiar with the camera obscura for centuries, but had no way to capture and preserve an image created in one. Many inventors worked their entire life with the hopes of inventing a successful and easily scalable photographic technology that would lead to further photographic inventions in the future. These inventors knew that the technology had the power to change the world in a variety of ways, and the potential to be named the inventor of photography led many to try their hand at creating the first accessible and affordable photographic process. By photographing people instead of scenery or scientific objects, photographs could then be sold to people who want portraits or other types of photography, which would make photography more of a personal tool for entertainment or for creating tangible memories. Among these aspiring inventors was Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre. Louis Daguerre was a French artist and inventor that can be accredited with the invention of the Daguerreotype process, a photographic process that utilized a silver plated sheet of metal that was treated with iodine and later mercury and hyposulphite of soda in order to expose and permanently suspend the photographer's development process. [1] Before Daguerre’s development of this technique, there had not been any success with the invention of a photographic process, but phenomena such as the camera obscura and simple optical physics were known by the public. Daguerre knew that others would also be trying to be the first to invent the first photographic process that could indefinitely display an image. Daguerre took particular interest in the work of Nicéphore Niépce and Abel Niépce de Saint-Victor because of their success that was shown in their bitumen process. [2] In turn, Daguerre tried to perfect the Niepce process with the idea that if he is able to finish Niepce’s work, that he would receive all of the fame and fortune from the invention. At the time, Daguerre saw this opportunity as one that he could potentially profit large amounts of money from because of the popularity that affordable and readily available photography would have among the public. Daguerre’s first photos were of different fossils and objects that had value within the scientific community. 

Although Daguerre’s main interest was bringing photography to the public, it is likely that he first focused on photography of still objects because it was almost impossible to photograph a human as a result of the amount of time that they would be required to sit for. The process that he was able to invent was limited by the amount of time that it took to take a photo, issues with the photo’s clarity, and its replicability. [3]

Daguerre saw a clear road to fame and success from his invention. While photography had not yet become a phenomenon to the public, Daguerre saw the chance to bring this technology to popularity. If Daguerre’s technology was successful compared to other forms of photography being developed, then Daguerre would likely assume a significant amount of fame and fortune by bringing his process to the public. Daguerre was a “[distrusted] showman from the big city… Daguerre was known to all France for a highly lucrative side show, called the Diorama.” [4] Being the first to develop a technology like photography or electricity lends itself to a legacy of fame and fortune. Many photographic developers recognized this and worked tirelessly to become the first and best at developing camera technology. During the creation of the Daguerreotype, Daguerre was very secretive of his methods and the different processes that he had been testing. He was scared that if this information got out, that another individual would beat him to the invention. Therefore, trying to make it so that he would be able to take advantage of the copyrighting and be able to profit off of the invention. In the end, Daguerre was able to claim legal ownership over the intellectual property associated with his invention and he sold his photographic process to the government where he received royalties for its use. Following the public release of his technology, Daguerre retired and moved to the countryside of France to take up a hobby of painting, suggesting that he was likely more interested in the money involved with his invention rather than the application and development of photographic processes. [5]

It is clear that Louis Daguerre was primarily interested in being the first to bring the Daguerreotype process because of the fortunes associated with being the first. Throughout his development of the process Daguerre purposefully kept his findings a secret and worked to discredit others who threatened to beat him to his own process or come up with a more advanced and practical process. Daguerre likely could have continued to perfect and alter his photographic process after gaining the intellectual rights to his invention, furthering the quality of photographic technology and expanding his legacy as the inventor of photography, but instead he simply abandoned the idea of photography and his work he did for it all together. [6]

The Daguerreotype process quickly became obsolete as a result of emerging alternatives that made the photographic process much quicker, replicable, and higher quality. “The daguerreotype, for all its delicate crispness and its still unsurpassed gradations of tone, was a dead end. The future and the importance of photography lay in the image which could be duplicated endlessly and exactly.” Although Daguerre’s process worked and was truly the first of its kind, its success was drowned out by other notable photographic inventions that fixed many of the issues that were present with the Daguerreotype process. Louis Daguerre did not continue his efforts to make the photographic process even easier than the processes that followed his own. 

Louis Daguerre's invention created a camera that would render all other efforts obsolete so he would be able to be recognized as the inventor of the modern camera and collect royalties on his invention for the rest of his life. Daguerre found success in creating his own version of a camera and collecting royalties from his copyrights, but the Daguerreotype technology quickly became obsolete as a result of several flaws compared to other arriving technologies, which required less time to take photographs, used more practical mediums for the image to be printed on, and also made it so the images could be replicated.