Louis Daguerre, full name Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851), French painter, inventor of the daguerreotype. He first worked as a scene painter for the opera. After achieving success in this art, Daguerre began to paint extensive panoramas, finally evolving (1822) the diorama, which attracted much attention. In 1829 he began collaborating with the French physicist Joseph Niépce. After Niépce's death, Daguerre revised and refined the process upon which they had worked. In 1837 he perfected the daguerreotype. This method of photography, which used metal plates, was the earliest widely-practiced form of photography.