Daguerreotype

Daguerreotypes are detailed and lustrous photographs on mirror-polished, silver-coated copper plates. The process produced a negative image in mercury deposits directly on the plate's silver surface. Sealing daguerreotypes under glass was necessary to preserve the delicate image and prevent the metal plate form tarnishing. For the negative daguerreotype image to appear positive, the plate's mirrored surface must reflect a dark background, such as its velvet-lines case. Each daguerreotype is unique and cannot be reproduced. 

Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre collaborated with Joseph Nicephore Niepce on the initial experimentation that led to that daguerreotype but perfected and published the process after his partner's death. The French government bought the process from Daguerre as a "gift to the world," and unveiled the process to an expectant public on August 19, 1839. By 1840 scientists had contributed significant improvements to the process that reduced exposure times from an average of twenty minutes to under a minute, making daguerreotype portraiture a viable commercial enterprise. Daguerreotypy was the most popular photographic process from 1840 until about 1855, when it was replaced by the wet collodion process.

Through the Lens exhibition text, 2016.

  

The diagram above shows the process of creating a Daguerreotype.

Source: Susanna Celeste Castelli, DensityDesign Research Lab, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License, Wikimedia Commons, August 9, 2016. 

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