Today is World Photography Day. Photographers from around the world are sharing “their world” with the world. Today’s global event reminded me of one of the earliest photographers - Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre who invented a photographic process called Daguerrotype.
The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process. The image is a direct positive made in the camera on a silver plated copper plate. The raw material for plates was called Sheffield plate, plating by fusion or cold-rolled cladding and was a standard hardware item produced by heating and rolling silver foil in contact with a copper support. The surface of a daguerreotype is like a mirror, with the image made directly on the silvered surface; it is very fragile and can be rubbed off with a finger, and the finished plate has to be angled so as to reflect some dark surface in order to view the image properly. Depending on the angle viewed, and the color of the surface reflected into it, the image can change from a positive to a negative.
Daguerre undoubtedly captured the very first living person on film.
This is a Daguerrotype created by Daguerre in 1838. Supposedly and most likely this is the first picture of a living person. It was taken out of a window looking down on the Boulevard du Temple in the 3rd Arrondissement of Paris. The image here is a reverse of the real image and took about 10 minutes to make the exposure. Yu can see the sign on the building has reversed letters. Because of the length of the exposure people and horses could have passed by with out being exposed. Only the people who stood still long enough were exposed on the film long enough to be captured in the image.
There are several people who are visible here:
- The man on the bottom left getting his shoes shined.
- A woman under the street light
- A man sitting on a bench reading a paper.
- A man standing under an awning
- A young child in the upper floor window of the building facing
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