188-Year-Old Mystery of Photography's First Human Subjects Solved

4 comments

• InsideOutSanta 20 hours ago
  It's kinda wild that the people in this picture will probably be remembered and seen for millennia, and they never knew about their own importance.
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  • mmmBacon 9 hours ago
    Agree. I also find this photo to be very profound. Generations of people lived and died and we will never see their faces. After this it’s like a great veil was lifted on the human story.

    I wonder in our digital age how long our images will endure. Will the vast quantities of images we have now have disappeared entirely 200 years from now and the photographic period be the only enduring image record? It’s interesting to think about.
• WhyComboNadir 20 hours ago
  I wanted to mark it on Google Maps so I don't walk right past it someday in the future. Here's the exact spot/link:

  https://maps.app.goo.gl/Fut9tktev2qR71tr6

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  • pvo50555 20 hours ago
    That is the spot where the shoe-shine boy was? Is there a marker for where Daguerre's studio was?
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    • butlike 17 hours ago
      From the angle I'd guess the Daguerre's studio was in what building stood where the Renaissance Paris Republique Hotel now stands.
• tocs3 3 days ago
  The photo depicted at the top of the page is flipped vs the one on the plaque?
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  • justincormack 20 hours ago
    I think a daguerrotype might be reversed, as its a direct positive image, so thats probably intentional to match the layout.
  • voidUpdate 20 hours ago
    Did a bit of googling, it looks like the "traditional" view of the image is mirrored, and the plaque version is what you'd have actually seen.

    https://mashable.com/archive/first-photograph-of-a-human
• wazoox 19 hours ago
  The earliest photograph is more than 10 years older :

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nic%C3%A9phore_Ni%C3%A9pce#/me...

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  • aaronbrethorst 18 hours ago
    Yeah, this photo from Daguerre is the first one known to feature a human subject, not the first photo.