. . . Amongst all the mechanical poison that this terrible nineteenth century has poured upon men, it has given us at any rate one antidote - the Daguerreotype. (1845)
A good daguerreotype was as perfect a kind of photograph as was ever made.
. . . the daguerreotype is not merely an instrument which serves to draw Nature; on the contrary it is a chemical and physical process which gives her the power to reproduce herself.
[The daguerreotype] itself must undoubtedly be regarded as the most important, and perhaps the most extraordinary triumph of modern science.
I know people who have a much better recollection of their childhood than I do. They remember very well when they were a year and a half and two years old. I've only one or two daguerreotypes that come to mind.
DAGUERREOTYPE Will take the place of painting. (See PHOTOGRAPHY. ) (From The Dictionary of Received Ideas, assembled from notes Flaubert made in the 1870s. )
With the daguerreotype, everyone will be able to have their portrait taken. . . and at the same time everything is being done to make us all look exactly the same.
