Behold, the first ever photograph to feature human beings. Paris has changed a lot since this picture was taken more than 175 years ago by Louis Daguerre. He pictured a view of the Boulevard du Temple in 1938 using the first ever method invented called the daguerreotype.
The technique took around seven minutes to create a single image, meaning anything that was moving during that time, such as people or traffic, was not picked up. Interestingly so, the only figures to feature in the historic picture were two men on the corner of the street. The man seemingly had stopped to have his shoes shined.
The first photograph actually was made by Joseph Nicephore Niepcea in 1826, where he used a silver and chalk mixture. But that picture was too blurry to make out any details.
Hence Daguerre’s technique is credited to be the first to produce a sharp image that was also replicable, with his method being adopted around the world. Interestingly enough, the daguerreotypes produce mirror images. This means that you have to flip the image of Boulevard du Temple at the top of the page to make it comparable to the modern day image.
