Overview

In August 1839, at a joint meeting of the French Academies of Sciences and Fine Arts, the astronomer François Arago (1786-1853) announced Louis Daguerre's (1787-1851) method of obtaining pictures by the interaction of light and chemicals. Daguerre's discovery instantly captured the imagination of the public everywhere. But the invention of photography is actually the work of three men. The combined efforts of Daguerre, Joseph Niépce (1765-1833), and William Talbot (1800-1877) altered for all time how people see themselves and the world around them.

Background

In ancient times the philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) described how during a partial eclipse of the sun, the gaps between the leaves of a tree cast images of the crescent-shaped sun on the ground. During the Renaissance, artists in Europe applied this optical principle to create the camera obscura...