Posted
on November 18, 2014
This
French artist was a panoramic painter and a famous designer for the
theater. He invented diorama theater and studied architecture. But he
is not known, now, for any of these things.
I
don't know much about photography, but even I recognized his name,
because he developed an early photographic process that we call
daguerreotype in his honor.
A
daguerreotype is an image on a bright mirror-like surface of metallic
silver.
At
first, Daguerre worked with another inventor name Nicephore Niepce,
but the inventor suddenly died before they had released their
invention to the world. Six years after his partner's death, Daguerre
announced the invention to the French Academy of Sciences, explaining
and demonstrating the process to only one person, but showing off the
results—the daguerreotypes themselves—to others. People thought
the early photos were miracles, and news of the invention spread.
Daguerre
gave rights to the invention to the French government in exchange for
lifetime pensions for himself and for Niepce's son. And France
published working instructions “free to the world” – isn't that
nice?
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I
thought it was interesting to note that, of the 72 names of French
scientists, engineers, and mathematicians inscribed on the Eiffel
Tower, one of them is Louis Daguerre!
Here
is the first daguerreotype, taken by Daguerre himself.
Modern
artist Chuck Close used this 150-year-old process to make some
striking photos of people.
Also
on this date:
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ahead:
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out my Pinterest boards for:
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