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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 November 2024
The first photographic patent was issued in August 1839 to a Frenchman named Jean Louis Daguerre. Daguerre developed a way of making unique photographic images on a highly polished metal plate, made light sensitive with a mix of silver salts. Daguerre named his process daguerreotype, and his method for creating and preserving images found a fascinated and eager audience around France and the rest of Europe. ▶ 1.1 ▶1.2
Daguerre had one primary rival, an Englishman named William Henry Fox Talbot. There is some debate as to which of these inventors first stabilized his photographic process first, though since Talbot never took out a patent, Daguerre is typically called the primary inventor of photography. ▶1.3 ▶1.4
Daguerreotypes are one of a kind, direct positive photographs. Talbot’s method—originally called the talbottype or calotype, though today typically referred to as salted paper—was a two-step process in which the maker first creates a photographic negative, and once fully washed and stabilized, this negative was then placed against a second piece of paper sensitized with silver salts, and then exposed to light to create the finished print. ▶1.5
At one time, the Netherlands led the world in creating printing technologies. In the 17th century, different etching and printmaking techniques were developed by the Dutch, which revolutionized printed materials and publications for centuries. As result, the publishing industry in the Netherlands in the 18th and 19th century became an important part of the social and economic structures of the country. With this background, photography immediately took hold among the Dutch, though they didn’t provide much innovation for further developing the medium. ▶1.6
Daguerre’s manual was translated into Dutch in 1839, presumably by Christiaan Julius Lodewijk Portman, a painter based in The Hague. Portman exhibited his own plates in October 1839.
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