Portrait of a Daguerreotypist Displaying Daguerreotypes and Cases (Main View)

This image can be considered among photography's first photographic advertisements. It presents a formally dressed man exhibiting nine different daguerreotypes grouped in a display frame. In his left hand he holds two encased daguerreotypes; two more closed cases lay on the table, which is draped with a floral cloth. He may have been the daguerreotypist of those images, presenting and promoting his own wares or an intermediary acting as a salesman for the daguerreotypist.

Adapted from getty.edu, Interpretive Content Department, 2002.