NIEPCE & DAGUERRE

Niépce and Daguerre are both very interesting and important persons in the history of photography. Niépce is notably the founder of photograpy and worked together with Daguerre to produce the first photograph. After the death of Niépce, Daguerre invented the daguerreotype which could produce more and  better pictures.
Daguerre's picture of Boulevard du Temple is also the first picture ever taken with a real person in it. Because of the very long exposure times it was not likely that a person was visible in a picture. For example, the picture taken by niépce had an exposure time over 8 hours! Daguerre managed to reduce this to 20-30 minutes. 
You can't look at the photo of Niépce the same way as you look at a normal photo, because it's the first photo ever taken! When you look at the shaded contours of Saint Loup de Varennes, you can feel the history. There's so much expresion in one frame, it's like the picture has faded along with the place where it was taken. Daguerre's pictures have that same expression, only more detailled. 




Niépce: View from the Window, Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, 1826

Niépce: View from the Window, original pewter plate, 1826 

 Daguerre: Boulevard du temple, 1837

Daguerre: The artist's studio, 1837