This is a Daguerreotype taken by the inventor of the process, Louis Daguerre, in 1838. It is a view of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris, France, and is believed to be the first ever photograph of a human being. To achieve this image he exposed a chemically treated metal plate for ten minutes.
Others were walking or riding in carriages down that busy street that day, but because they moved, they didn't show up. Only this guy stood still getting his boots polished long enough to show up in the picture.
10 comment(s):
I'd just like to point out that the other one, the one who was actually shining said shoes, well, he also looks like a human being. No? So this would be the first photo of two humans.
The way you've described this, Mr Presurfer, kinda seems to imply that only the rich guy is human, as in, the only human in this picture.
Wow, Mr. Anonymous, where did that come from? I'm not implying anything. Please don't put words in my mouth that I didn't say.
The shoe shiner is not recognizable as a human being so it's not a picture of a human being.
Yep, where did that first comment come from? I guess there's always a way to interpret something in a bad way.
Gerard, you are such a rich and snobby person. Oh wait, sarcasm might not go well with Anonymous.
If the orig-anal "anonymous" could point out to us what parts of the smudge at low right, comprise the bootblack, it would be helpful. I for one can't make him out, presumably because he would have moved continuously while shining the boot.
and so, i see only one obvious human, the man standing. the blur at his right might as well be a water pump...
Nice photo Gerard. I had previously looked for a photo of the earliest portrait, and came across a photo from the same period where a person in a window was looking at the photographer, whose camera was set up to photograph the larger scene, outside. Pretty amazing when you think of it.
Cannot for the life of me find the photo, despite googling like a mad man. Ifi find it, i'll post the link.
I bet I can guess the race of the first commenter.
I STILL cannot wrap my mind around the fact that you can point a machine at someone and capture their image. My mind, it boggles.
Tol me it seems that a few meters to the right o the standing man, we see two other persons, sitting at a small table, playing some kind of tric-trac (which was a pretty normal activity to do on the street those days). What do you think? This would make the first picture of 4 people... ;-)
Did an item on this one on my weblog (Dutch text, though the title is English...).
http://www.pbdoetmee.nl/wp/2010/10/28/going-172-years-back-in-time/
Google will help you to translate ;-)
I thought *this* was the first photograph of a human being?
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/10/the-first-photograph-of-a-human/65196/
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