Born in Cormeilles near Paris, France, Daguerre, the inventor of the daguerreotype (the first practical photograph), first became interested in the effect of light on films from the artistic point of view. After working first as a tax officer he became a painter of opera scenery. Working with Charles-Marie Bouton he invented the diorama – a display of paintings on semitransparent linen that transmitted and reflected light – and opened a diorama in Paris (1822).

From 1826 Daguerre turned his attention to heliography and he was partnered in this by Joseph-Nicéphore Niepce until Niepce's death in 1833. Daguerre continued his work and in 1839 presented to the French Academy of Sciences the daguerreotype, which needed only about 25-minutes exposure time to produce an image, compared with over eight hours for Niepce's previous attempts. In the daguerreotype a photographic image was obtained on a copper plate coated with a light-sensitive layer of silver iodide and bromide.