Alexandre Bertrand (1797 - 1867) was born in Lyon, in France. Before taking up photography as his main profession, Claudet was in the glass business of his family.

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By early 1852 Bertrand was already producing stereo daguerreotypes in his studio.

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After mastering the techniques of Daguerre and receiving one of the first licenses to practice, he opened a daguerreotype studio in London. During this time he helped Charles Wheatstone by producing some of the first stereoviews for Wheatstone's reflecting mirror stereoscope.

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Claudet was an ardent supporter of stereoscopic photography in which he saw a much more perfect reflection of the real world:

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"The stereoscope is the general panorama of the world. It brings to us in the cheapest and most portable form, not only the picture, but the model, in a tangible shape, of all that exists in the various countries of the globe; it introduces us to scenes known only from the imperfect relations of travellers; it leads us before the ruins of antique architecture, illustrating the historical records of former and lost civilizations, the genius, taste and power of past ages, with which we have become as familiarised as if we had visited them."

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Claudet made daguerreotype stereoviews of the Great Exhibition in London in 1851. Some of those were sent to the Russian Tsar Nicholas I, for which Claudet received a present: a diamond-encrusted ring.

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Later in his life Claudet invented several types of stereoscopes himself.

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