The Daguerreotype

Illustrates the development and rapid spread of Louis Daguerre's photographic invention in France by a variety of daguerreotypes drawn from the collection of the Musee d'Orsay.

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The development and rapid spread of Louis Daguerre's photographic invention in France is brilliantly illustrated by a variety of daguerreotypes drawn from the collection of the Musee d'Orsay.On January 7th 1839, during a session of the Academy of Sciences in Paris, the physicist and politician Francois Arago presented a new process to reproduce images in a dark room, using mechanical and chemical means and without manual intervention. This procedure became known as the daguerreotype and marked the official birth of photography. Louis Daguerre's invention, in which a single image is exposed directly onto a mirror-polished copper plate coated with silver halide particles, definitively altered the way we look at the world and the representations we make of it.Organized to complement an exhibition at the Musee d'Orsay of British calotypes (the first paper-based photographic process perfected by William Fox Talbot), this collection of French daguerreotypes drawn from the Musee d'Orsay emphasizes the particular aesthetic of these unique photographs, which are at once positive and negative.