The purpose of this paper is to examine the imagery of the daguerreotype in the French Literature in the period from the 1840s to the 1870s. At this time the nascent photography was concerned with the technical morphology of the first camera, as well as the mythopoeic potential of this invention. The article examines the anthropomorphic features of the daguerreotype and the fascination with the sunlight, which has become a necessary element of the photographic process. The article discusses both the works of well-known authors (and leading opponents of the invention) such as Théophile Gautier, Charles Baudelaire and Champfleury, and less recognized ones: Népomucène Lemercier, Alexandre Peron, Philippe Burty and Amédée Gouet. The latter explored the symbolic nature of the daguerreotype and raised its inventor to the rank of a mythological figure.