Roger Cicala: Imaging Before Photography, Part III -- The Showman and the Sheriff

Enter the Showman In my last article, we discussed the first image makers, up until the late 1820s when Niepce had actually been able to make images using a camera obscura and silver plates coated with Bitumen of Judea. On his way to England, Niepce had been introduced to a most interesting man, Louis Daguerre, by Charles Chevalier, the lensmaker they both used. Daugerre was in almost every way the opposite of Niepce. Unlike the landed Niepce, Daguerre was the son of a clerk. Because...