Daguerre Against Talbot

The online exhibition “Daguerre vs. Talbot” presents priceless images of the past and explores the features, advantages, and limitations of the earliest photographic technologies.

In January 1839, an astonishing invention, photography, was announced to the world in Paris. The inventor’s name was Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre.

Meanwhile, in Great Britain, Henry William Fox Talbot had devised his own method of producing photographic images at nearly the same time. Unlike Daguerre’s process, which yielded only a single unique image, Talbot’s invention made it possible to create multiple prints.

When the methods of Daguerre and Talbot could finally be compared, it became clear that they were entirely different. Talbot, producing photographs on paper, followed the direction set earlier by Wedgwood. Daguerre continued along the path pioneered by Niépce, using silver-plated copper plates. Each of them developed the ideas of predecessors from their own country.

Both methods had their strengths and weaknesses, along with their admirers and critics. While daguerreotypes attracted professionals with their clarity and sharpness, Talbot’s method appealed to amateurs, as the process was simpler, cheaper, and allowed the production of multiple copies of the same image.

The online exhibition allows visitors to explore the inventions of Talbot and Daguerre, compare them, and form their own judgments. In addition, the exhibition presents other early techniques such as woodburytype and the wet-collodion process.

daguerreotype

calotype

woodburytype

wet collodion process

Daguerreotype in Russia

In 2019, for the 180th anniversary of photography, ROSPHOTO completed the project “Daguerreotype in Russia.” The result was a comprehensive catalogue of unique monuments of early Russian photography, consisting of seven volumes.

Similar programs have been carried out in the United States, France, Germany, and Denmark.

Daguerreotypes captured a disappearing world of the past, but the inability to reproduce them limited their circulation. Modern photographic technologies have given daguerreotypes a second life by making them accessible to a wide audience.

The project brought together museums, archives, and libraries across Russia, presenting the most complete collection of early photographic heritage.

Over the course of eight years, ROSPHOTO specialists studied and documented around one thousand objects. Approximately 70% of the images included in the catalogue required identification and attribution. In this way, “Daguerreotype in Russia” introduced into academic circulation works previously unknown to the broader public.

Below are sample excerpts from the volumes:

Volume 1