9 world's first photos

Almost 200 years ago, the Frenchman Joseph Nicephore Niepce smeared a thin layer of asphalt on a metal plate and exposed it to the sun in a pinhole camera. So he received the world's first "reflection of the visible." The picture was not of the best quality, but the history of photography begins with it.

Some 30-40 years ago, a significant part of photographs, films, and TV shows were in black and white. Many people do not realize that color photography appeared much earlier than we think. On May 17, 1861, the famous English physicist James Maxwell, during a lecture on the peculiarities of color vision at the Royal Institute of London, showed the world's first color photograph — a "Tartan Ribbon".

Since then, photography, in addition to turning from black and white into color, has received many more varieties: aerial and space photography, photomontage and X-rays, self-portrait, underwater photography and 3D photography have appeared.

1826 — the first and oldest photograph

Joseph Nicephore Niepce, a French photographer, took this picture using an eight-hour shutter speed. It is called "View from the window on Le Gras", has been demonstrated in recent years at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

1838 — the first photograph of another person

Louis Daguerre took the first photograph of another person in 1838. The Boulevard du Temple photo shows a busy street that looks deserted (exposure time is 10 minutes, and therefore the movement is imperceptible), with the exception of one person in the lower left part of the photo (visible when zoomed in).

1858 — the first photomontage

In 1858, Henry Peach Robinson performed the first photomontage, combining several negatives into one image.

The first and most famous combined photograph was called Fading Away — it consists of five negatives. The death of a girl from tuberculosis is depicted. The work caused a lot of controversy.

1861 — the first color photograph

James Clerk Maxwell, a Scottish mathematician and theoretical physicist, received the first color photograph in 1861. The photographic plates used in the process are now stored in the house where Maxwell was born (now a museum), at 14 India Street in Edinburgh.

1875 — the first self - portrait

The famous American photographer Matthew Brady was the first person who photographed himself, i.e. made a self-portrait.

1903 — the first photograph taken from the air

The first aerial photographers were birds. In 1903, Julius Neubronner connected a camera and a timer and attached it to the neck of a pigeon. This invention was taken note of in the German army and used for military intelligence.

1926 — the first color underwater photography

The first underwater color photograph was taken in the Gulf of Mexico by Dr. William Longley and National Geographic staff photographer Charles Martin in 1926.

1946 — the first picture from space

On October 24, 1946, a 35mm camera mounted on a V-2 rocket took a picture from a height of 105 km above the Ground.

1972 — the first photograph of a fully illuminated Earth

The first photograph showing a fully illuminated Earth is known as The Blue Marble ("Blue Ball"). The picture was taken on December 7, 1972 by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft.