Early photography.

The invention of the daguerreotype was announced in Paris in 1839, four years after the process had actually been invented. The earliest daguerreotypes date from 1837, but it took two more years for Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre and his colleague Nicephore Niepce to simplify the process and make it less expensive, to develop a sophisticated marketing plan, and negotiate an annuity with the French government. Only then was the announcement made to the public.

The fascinating story of this evolution is spelled out in an excellent essay by Andre Gunthert in the catalogue that accompanies a landmark show organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Reunion des Musees Nationaux, and the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, where it was earlier on view. Entitled The Dawn of Photography: French Daguerreotypes, 1839-1855, the exhibition may be seen at the Metropolitan Museum from September 23 to January 4, 2004. The nearly 175 works in the show include some of the most important extant daguerreotypes and represent the full range of how they were used in the fields of science, ethnography, documentation, and art.

Daguerre began his career as a painter, printmaker, theatrical set designer, and maker of dioramas, and several of his paintings and prints, which have received little scholarly attention, are among the exhibits along with ten of his photographs. Those who mastered the rather complicated process of making daguerreotypes were awestruck that these pictures revealed details invisible to the naked eye. As Daguerre wrote, "The daguerreotype is not an instrument to be used for drawing nature, but a chemical and physical process which allows nature to reproduce itself."

While not all artists championed the ...