A painter locked himself in a lab for two years trying to create a lasting image using light. Then he accidentally broke a thermometer – and changed photography forever

FRANCE - SEPTEMBER 21: The house of Nicephore Niepce, the inventor of photography, opens its doors to the general public for the first time in Saint Loup De Varennes, France on September 21, 2002 - The first daguerrotype. The first view taken by Daguerre from 17 boulevard Saint Martin in Paris in 1837. Collection Musee Rigaud / Ville de Perpignan. (Photo by Francis DEMANGE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images).

At photography’s start, painters dismissed the camera as a vulgar threat to fine art – but much of photography’s early start actually originates from a painter: Louis Daguerre.

The invention of photography didn’t stem from a single person, but rather a series of discoveries that played off each other.