Who is Louis Daguerre from On Photography and what is their importance?

Louis Daguerre (1787-1851) was born in France and worked in architecture and design. Daguerre became interested in photographic processes after his associate, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, produced the world's first permanent photograph, called a heliograph, in 1827. Daguerre subsequently announced, in 1839, the process of producing a permanent photograph, called a daguerreotype, and the patent was essentially placed in the public domain by the French government. Daguerre was a competitor to Fox Talbot, and their processes, though similar in final results, were different in execution. Daguerreotypes were expensive and complicated to produce, and somewhat fragile—most early examples are portraits encased in glass. The text styles Daguerre as the co-inventor of photography—indeed, Daguerre made some of the first photographs in history.