This is John Batchelor. Conversation with the author Anika Burgess. Her new book is Flashes of

brilliance, the genius of early photography and how it transformed art, science, and history. It begins

with a man named Daguerre in the early part of the 19th century in France. He and another man worked together for a number of years

and then finally reveal what their Deggerotype will be in 1839. It's presented with great

attention from the public by a colleague of Deguers. He doesn't immediately give out the chemistry behind the creation of a one-use

photograph.

He negotiates with the French government for the patent.

De Garotipe, the beginning of photography.

Today we have the iPhone and streaming.

The beginning is everything.

Here's Anika Burgess on Daguerre and the early moments, 1839.

Here's Anika.

I mean, this is a wonderful story.

So DeGere had been a scene painter in Paris, very artistically

talented. He had created something called the diorama, which was these sort of translucent

material that he would paint and using lights, this beautiful illumination, he would create

this very realistic effect. And he had done this in the early

1820s, mid-1820s. And it had occurred to him that actually maybe there was a way to take a

photograph from life, from a scene from life to make a most realistic representation possible.

And that was how he had commenced work on what became known as the Degera type. Now, he ended up partnering

up with somebody called an essay for Nieps, who had been doing his own similar experiments.

And of course, there's a whole prehistory to all of this, which I won't delve into just yet.

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