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For everyone alive today, photographs are just a given, we take them for granted!
Heck, the first commercially viable instant camera dates back to 1948 - that's even older
than me, guys!
With the advent of social media, it’s hard to imagine a world before any kind of camera
existed.
Today, we're looking at 10 of the Oldest Photographs Of All Time!
10.
Russel Kirsch’s Infant Son 20 years before the first digital photos,
artist Russel Kirsch took a photo of his infant son in 1957.
It was scanned by a rudimentary drum scanner created by the artist himself, who was also
a scientist.
In his attempt to find whether computers could see like we do, he ended up making the first
digital photo ever.
9.
Tri-colored Bow Almost 100 years before that, two photographers
named James Clark Maxwell and Thomas Sutton took the first ever color photograph.
Maxwell had Thomas photograph a tartan ribbon three times, each time with a different color
filter (red, green, or blue-violet) over the lens.
The three photographs were developed and printed on glass, then projected onto a screen with
three different projectors, each equipped with the same color filter used to photograph
it.
When superimposed on the screen, the three images formed a full-color image.
Maxwell’s three-color approach underlies nearly all forms of color photography, whether
film-based, analog video, or digital.
The three photographic plates now reside in a small museum in Edinburgh, at the house
where Maxwell was born.
8.
The first Aerial Photo This doesn’t seem that dramatic today, when
aerial photography and videography is the norm, but imagine back in the mid 1800s, when
even being up in mid-air seemed crazy and was mainly done with hot air balloons.
The photographer, James Wallace Black, took a photo from a hot air balloon.
Taken at about 2,000 feet over the city, It’s actually incredibly beautiful and makes Boston
look a lot more like Europe than any American city I’ve been to, that’s for sure.
He later took another photo of Boston adequately called “Boston from a Hot-Air Balloon”.
7.
What good is old news?
Old news may be a waste of paper but photos were news to the news industry itself back
in 1847!
To tell the story of a man’s arrest a photo was taken, though we don’t know the photographer,
of the arrest itself, which took place in France.
It’s unknown what exactly his crime was, but he sure doesn’t look like he regrets
committing it.
Though it was just a click at the time, inconsequential, it changed the entire industry of news, making
it visual and a much more emotional matter than ever before.
6.
The First Presidential Photographic Portrait It’s hard to think that until 1843, presidential
portraits were all painted by actual artists.
Until, of course, John Quincy Adams came around.
It’s unfortunate that we don’t know who exactly took the photo but the man looks quite
dapper, does he not?
Crazier yet is the fact that he was not actually the president anymore at the time that this
was taken.
John Tyler was the president then and even he was only painted, not photographed.
The first president to get photographed in office was James K. Polk.
Hilariously, John Quincy Adams said both that the photo was “hideous” and “true to
the original.”
I take it he had quite the sense of humor.
5.
The Oldest Hoax Photograph The word “hoax” might get thrown around
a little too often these days, but let’s go back to a time when it was less common.
It’s 1840 and photographers are battling for the title of the “Father of Photography.”
The top contenders?
Hippolyte Bayard and Louis Daguerre.
They are working on a new process of developing photos and though Bayard reached the goal
first, it’s Daguerre who reports it to the French Academy of Sciences, so he gets the
title.
I guess that’s why we now call it a Daguerreotype and not a Bayardotype.
Bayard wanted to get back at Daguerre and show he’d died by suicide after the anguish,
so he took this photo, which turned out to be a total fake.
Talk about Photography drama!
4.
The Oldest Selfie Photograph No, it’s not Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice,
it’s actually Robert Cornelius, the first photographer to take his own photograph.
He was an amateur photographer and a lamp maker, which makes sense because what do photographers
do if not play with light?
What he did to accomplish this shot was place a camera in the back of his family’s shop,
open the lens cap, run in front of the lens, sit for a full minute and then ran back.
It worked pretty well, wouldn’t you say?
Especially for 1839.
You 30 year olds now thinking you're special taking a selfie - this 30 year old did it
over 180 years ago!
3.
The Oldest American Photo The same year that Mr. Cornelius took the
first selfie, the first photo in the United States was taken.
It was by Joseph Saxton, an inventor and amateur photographer.
Saxton was from Philadelphia and actually had a great world of impact on the history
of photography.
The photo is of Central High School, on Juniper and Walnut Intersection and took a full 10
minutes to take.
Even in the 1800s, nobody has time to stand around for 10 minutes, so that could be why
it’s quite a lonely photograph.
2.
The Oldest Photo of a Person A year earlier, in 1838, we got the first-ever
photo of a person.
It was taken by Louis Daguerre himself in Paris.
The photo was of the Boulevard du Temple and coincidentally captured a man standing while
getting his shoes shined.
Since it took about 10 minutes to capture something he was the only one standing still
enough to be in the photograph.
Personally, I think this would make a great painting or wall piece.
When you start to zoom and gaze into the picture, it really takes you back to that era.
1.
The Oldest Photograph Ever (That We Know Of) 12 years earlier still, in 1826, we saw the
first-ever photograph to date, at least that we know of.
It was taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce.
It’s a typical scene captured with a method known as Heliography.
It uses glass coated with Bitumen of Judea.
The light hits the Bitumen, hardens, and creates an image.
This photo was an 8-hour exposure and didn’t result in a very clear image, sadly, but photography
had to start somewhere!
Not to mention, the photograph is nearly 200 years old now, so we can only imagine it looked
much better when it was first taken.
This original photograph is easy to find and viewable in the Harry Ransom Center at the
University of Texas at Austin.
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