Biography

Originally a glass merchant, Antoine Claudet became one of the first commercial photographers. In 1841 he set up his studio on the roof of a building behind St Martin-in-the-Fields in London. In that year he had made a critical discovery which reduced the exposure time for daguerreotype portraits to a tolerable level (depending on the season, between ten and ninety seconds). Already then he could boast of taking natural groups of 'three to six persons either engaged at tea, cards, chess or in conversation, arranged in a manner most agreeable to the parties'.