Key images in the history of photography

It may surprise you, but in 2025 humanity will celebrate 200 years since the first photograph appeared.

1. In 1825, Joseph Nicéphore Niepce took this photograph from an ordinary engraving. This, of course, is not photography, but heliography. The photo from 2002 belongs to the French National Library.

2. A year later, Niepce creates the first photograph of the real environment - the view from his window. This required an 8-hour exposure.

3. In 1838, another Frenchman, Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre, using his daguerreotype technology, became the author of the first photograph depicting a person. If you look closely, you will see a man with his leg raised at the corner of the Boulevard du Temple. Perhaps his shoes are being shined.

4. The first portrait of a person turned out to be a self-portrait of the American inventor and photographer Robert Cornelius. The exact date of the photograph is unknown, but it happened no later than mid-autumn 1839.

5. The first woman to appear in the photograph is Dorothy Catherine Draper, who was photographed by her brother and famous American photographer John Draper. By the way, in the same year 1839.

6. The first erotic photo dates back to 1850. Its author is the Frenchman Felix Jacquet Antoine Moulin.

7. Briton Roger Fenton became not only one of the founders of the art of photography in Great Britain, but is also rightfully considered the first war photographer. In 1855, Roger and his assistant went to the Crimean War on instructions from the publisher. Here's a photo of his van. During the war, the photographer managed to make more than 300 large-sized negatives.

8. But this photo from 1850 influenced medicine more than photography. Phineas Gage is an ordinary railroad construction worker who had a metal rod pass through his skull (pictured). The story of Phineas, who survived such an injury and lived for another 12 years, is considered the first scientific experience of doctors about the influence of the frontal lobes on a person’s personality. Phineas' skull is still on display at Harvard.

9. The following two photographs dispute the right to be called the first photograph taken in Asia. The first photo shows a pontoon bridge over the Indus River, connecting the modern territories of India and Pakistan, the city of Attock. According to unverified data, the photo was taken in 1861.

10. And the second one depicts the Lahore Fort, in the same place, in Pakistan. The date 1864 is disputed by historians downward.

11. 1865 - the first underwater photograph was taken by William Thompson (pictured) in the UK.

12. The first color photograph taken by physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1861.

13. In 1893, the first photo was taken inside a professional photography studio. Place and author unknown.

14. Photo of the first presidential inauguration. The photo was taken in 1864 during the second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln.

15. The first color photograph of real objects “Landscape of Southern France” (bichromatic method) - Louis Ducos du Hauron in 1877.

16. The first aerial photograph was taken in 1858 by Gaspard-Felix Tournachon, who captured the panorama of Paris.

17. Better shot - James Wallace Blake over Boston, USA, 1860.

18. The first photograph from space was taken from a V-2 rocket on October 24, 1946. The photo shows Mexico. The Americans launched the rocket.

19. The first digital photograph was created in 1957 by American Russell Kirsch. In fact. It was an ordinary photograph, scanned into electronic format.