Phelps 1

Photography in the

Nicéphore Niépce was an inventor who invented the bicycle however his most passionate project was . He first started with the in 1824 but these pictures only lasted a few days. It was everyone’s concern to make pictures that lasted longer and didn’t have a huge amount of exposure time. In 1827, Louis Daguerre met Niépce and they created a partnership in 1829 to work towards the goal of a permanent photo. Unlike Niépce, Daguerre was well known before his invention of he created a dramatic theatrical display called . His diorama was raved about because there was many moving parts to his play.

The set would come alive and the audience moved around (almost like an amusement park ride).

Daguerreotype was much more famous than Niépce previous work Landscape in Saint-Loup-de-

Varennes because it took Niépce around 8 hours of exposure to get a blurry picture. When

Niépce died in 1833, Daguerre got most of the credit for the invention. In 1838, Daguerre captured a usually busy street in and was able to catch a person getting thier shoes shined in his . This an incredible moment because catching someone in photo that wasn’t sitting still was difficult. While Daguerre was creating his permanent pictures across the pond

William Talbot was creating a way to make long lasting pictures with paper. Even though the

Talbot invention wasn’t the best detailed picture it did allow the recreation of artwork and to start adding pictures into books, newspapers, album covers, and book coverings. There was push to document structures in South West where old churches were still standing. The importance of capturing these falling structures was to study them in later years before the restoration commission began. In 1854, a man named wanted to sketch thousands of noble people

(similar to The Oath of the be Court by David) and while he was only able to create one of four large pictures he had the aid of photography to sketch many people. By 1858, other people Phelps 2 besides inventors had their hands on a Daguerreotype. People wanted to have the ability to reminisce about their grandparents, houses, and land so their children could know what the past looked like.

I thought people at first would think this invention was witchcraft and that it’s not possible. I can see some people not understanding what it was thus not being open to liking

Daguerreotypes. However, most people were for it and wanted to share this invention with everyone except the U.K., which makes me laugh. The invention of a permanent photo was a total game changer. You could now see the past clearly and with detail I am sure artists enjoyed this because if they wanted to paint something they didn’t always have to travel to that area but could look at a Daguerreotype and sketch the image themselves. Then again it makes me wonder, what’s the use of artists anymore if we can capture real areas so vividly?