Daguerreotype half-plate - Napoleon III frame - Millet

Large format coloured half-plate daguerreotype depicting a young couple in period dress. Label of the photographer Désiré Millet, located at 6 rue de Montesquieu in Paris.

Désiré Millet is the photographer-daguerreotypist for the Ministry of the Interior, Agriculture and Commerce, but also for artists and students and college students. He also gives courses and lessons for amateurs.

The daguerreotype was the first photographic process, developed by Nicéphore Niépce and later Louis Daguerre, and introduced to the world (except the United Kingdom) by France in 1839. It is both a negative and a positive, hence its characteristic mirror effect. In the 19th century, they were also poetically called "mirrors that remember."

Given the cost and technical difficulties, it will only be used for about ten years in France and will be replaced by other processes.

However, there are later daguerreotypes, particularly American or Anglo-Saxon ones.