Daguerre (English spelling) Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre

French painter and impresario known as the inventor of photography. Born in the suburbs of Paris, he studied architecture and painting, and after working as a stage artist for the Paris Opera, he opened a diorama museum (a large-scale landscape exhibition in which the scenery changes through the manipulation of artificial lighting) in Paris in 1822 and in London the following year in 1823. He used a camera obscura to create the landscapes used in his dioramas, but he came up with the idea of ​​fixing the images chemically rather than by hand, and began research (1824). In 1829, he partnered with Niépce, who was also researching the fixing of optical images, and improved Niépce's heliography. After Niépce's death, he perfected the so-called daguerreotype in 1837, in which a silver-plated copper plate is exposed to silver iodide, developed with mercury vapor, and fixed with a salt solution. He named it the daguerreotype after himself. However, he did not have the financial means to commercialize his technology, so in 1839, through the scientist and politician Arago, he presented the details of his technology to the Academy of Sciences in exchange for a pension. This marked the beginning of practical photography.

[Osamu Hiraki]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

写真の発明者として知られるフランスの画家兼興行師。パリ郊外に生まれ、建築、絵画を学んだのち、パリ・オペラ座の舞台美術画家を経て、1822年にパリで、翌1823年ロンドンでジオラマ館（人工的な照明の操作で景観が変化する大掛りな風景画の見せ物）を開業する。ジオラマに用いる風景画をカメラ・オブスキュラで描いていたが、その画像を手書きではなく化学的に定着することを思い立ち研究に着手（1824）。1829年、やはり光学像の定着を研究していたニエプスと提携し、ニエプスが創意したヘリオグラフィーを改良、彼の死後、銀めっき銅板に沃化(ようか)銀を作用させ露光を与え、それを水銀蒸気で現像し食塩水で定着する、いわゆる銀板写真術を1837年に完成、自らの名を冠してダゲレオタイプと命名した。だが商品化の資力がなく、1839年、科学者にして政治家のアラゴを介し、年金と引き換えに学士院でその技術内容を公開した。これが実用的な写真術の始まりである。

［平木　収］

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