Jul2

an instant out of time.

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The first candid photograph of a person was taken in 1838.

Before the 19th century, photography did not exist, so people who wanted a lasting image of their home, their family, or themselves had to have one painted, sculpted, or drawn. In the early 1800s, inventors in France and England were at the center of the effort to create photographic representations of objects and people. In France, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce stunned the world in 1827 when he released what is believed to be the first photograph ever taken, titled “View from the Window at Le Gras.” Niépce rendered the image using a camera obscura combined with a light-sensitive metal plate, a process he called heliography. Despite its success, the heliograph required several days of exposure to capture the scene, eliminating the opportunity to photograph any people who may have been on the street

In 1829, Niépce met artist and printmaker Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre. Each man was familiar with the other’s work. Niépce admired Daguerre’s rotating diorama that had captivated Parisian audiences in 1822. Daguerre, like Niépce, saw the potential of improving upon the camera obscura to create clear and permanent images. They entered into a business partnership that resulted in the creation of the daguerreotype, an innovative photographic process that required only four to five minutes of exposure.  The quicker shutter speed allowed Daguerre’s camera to capture an image never seen before: a photo of a human being. In 1838, he debuted a daguerreotype of a street scene on the Boulevard du Temple in Paris. In the lower left corner of the photo we can see a man having his shoes shined; remaining stationary allowed him to be included in the photo, something that would have been impossible using the multiple-day exposure that heliographs required. This anonymous stranger on Boulevard du Temple was not simply the subject of the world’s first candid photograph— he’s also believed to be the first human being ever photographed.

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“photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.”
– dorothea lange

 

 

 

 

 

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source credit: historyfacts

 

 

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64 responses »

  1. As you know from my many posts about it, I love the history of photography, and the earliest photos. It must have seemed like such incredible magic to the first people who saw them.
    Best wishes, Pete.

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  2. It was truly an incredible invention for that time … and I am trying to explain how wondrous those first images must have been?? I think this poem by Robert Okaji, from his Chapbook, “From Every Moment A Second”, captures my thoughts.

    “Flame (page 15)

    Drifting, she passes through the frame.
    Reshapes borders, edges.

    The way smoke scribes a letter in the sky with
    gases and particles. Intractable. Impermanent.

    But not like a risen corpse
    yet to accept its body’s stilling, or
    the flooded creek’s waters taking
    a house and a family within. Some things

    are explainable. This morning you drained
    the sink, and thunder set off a neighbor’s alarm.

    From every moment, a second emerges.

    Picture a man lighting a candle where a home once stood.”

    Robert’s Website >> https://robertokaji.com/

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  10. What a long ways we’ve come with photography. And I thought the film camera I used as a newspaper reporter was archaic compared to the digital of today. I love digital as it has grown my skills. I don’t have to think about the cost of burning up a bunch of film and then getting it printed. So I shoot to my heart’s content.

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  21. Wow! I’ve taken six photos today..three of them selfies…walking around in Toronto and headed to another baseball game tonight…I am certain there will be even more photographs. What a wonderful invention and fabulous quote.

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  25. Fascinating!
    From this lone “Adam” in the street, to selfies here there and everywhere (so beware)in the street. – 186 years, and accelerating.

    Who knows? In the future, we may get computeroid implants that allow us to blink our eyes in a certain way, to take a pic and mentally send it to our cloud.

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