Shine on forever: Man and his shoe-cleaning boy on the streets of Paris are THE first humans ever photographed
Its existence has been known for many years but it has sparked a frenzy of internet speculation recently after claims by University of Rochester academics that a photo taken in Cincinnati in 1848 was the oldest existing photo of a human being.
Seemingly deserted: Because Louis Daguerre's picture process took several minutes, moving objects were not captured - which is why the two stationary figures are so significant in the left of this 1838 photographMany believe the anonymous Frenchman was getting his shoes shined, meaning the shoe shine boy would also hold the record for the oldest human to have their picture taken.
Louis Daguerre would have taken the picture using the daguerreotype, one of the first photographic processes which needed very long exposures to form an image on the surface of a silver plate.
It is likely the street was busy at the time and, as the image would have taken several minutes to form, this man - and possibly his shoe shine boy - are the only ones who stood still long ennough to show up.
The man can be seen at the bottom left on the street corner and at the end of a row of trees.
His identity has not been ascertained, and is unlikely to ever be known.
The man was spotted by Internet blogger Gig Thurmond on his blog The Hokumburg Goombah, and he claims it is the earliest known photo of a human.
He writes: ‘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.
‘To achieve this image (one of his earliest attempts), 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 long enough - maybe to have his boots shined - to leave an image.’
He adds: ‘Other primitive forms of photography had preceded this picture by over a decade.
Academics at the University of Rochester had claimed that a photo taken in Cincinnati in 1848 was the oldest existing photo of a human being
Academics at the University of Rochester had claimed that a photo taken in Cincinnati in 1848 was the oldest existing photo of a human being
‘But this anonymous shadowy man is the first human being to ever have his picture taken. There is also the very faint image of the bootblack bent over his work.’
The first permanent photograph was made in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépcea using a silver and chalk mixture that darkened under exposure to light.
Daguerre exposed silver-coated copper plates to iodine before coating it with mercury and heating it.
This created a far sharper picture which became the first widely used method of photography.
Thurmond posted the picture in response to claims by academics at the University of Rochester that they had found the oldest photograph of an urban scene ever taken.
They unearthed a picture from records at the Cincinnati Public Library taken by Charles Fontayne and William Porter in Cincinnati 162 years ago, on September 24, 1848.
Experts at the renowned George Eastman House photography museum in Rochester scanned several plates and posted the pictures on the Internet.
In one of the pictures they were able to see two human figures wearing white shirts standing on a wooden platform close to the river.
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