André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri studied as a painter from 1831 to 1837. He subsequently was an actor, lingerie maker, and bookkeeper, before opening a studio in Brest in 1849. In 1854 he patented the carte-de-visite, and also invented a multi-lens camera for multiple exposures in a single negative. He died deaf, blind and destitute.