"Earliest-Born Person To Be Photographed"

1

"Hannah Stilley Gorby, born in 1746, holds the title of the earliest-born person ever captured in a photo. To put it in perspective, she was born a decade before Mozart and 23 years before Napoleon Bonaparte, both of whom didn’t live long enough to experience the invention of photography. However, at the ripe age of 94, Gorby posed for a portrait using this new technology in 1840."

"First Selfie (1839)"

2

"The very first portrait photograph was actually a selfie! In 1839, Robert Cornelius, a photographer from Philadelphia, had the patience and determination to sit still for 15 minutes, the time needed for a daguerreotype. This resulted in the first clear photograph of a person, the first portrait, and the first ever selfie, all at once."

"First Photograph Ever (1826)"

3

"The first photo ever taken in history was snapped by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, featuring the picturesque view from his window in Saône-et-Loire, Bourgogne, France. Though it may not seem like much, it took eight hours to capture this momentous image."

"First Photograph From A Negative (1835)"

4

"In 1835, Henry Fox Talbot improved upon Niépce’s concept by creating a more practical method. He was the first to take a photograph with a negative, which allowed him to make multiple copies instead of just one faint image on metal."

"First Photograph Of People (1838)"

5

"Louis Daguerre made history by capturing the first photograph to feature a human being. The photo depicts a street scene in Paris, but if you take a closer look at the bottom left corner, you’ll see two people — one getting their shoes polished by the other. Since they were standing still during the long exposure time, they could be captured while the rest of the busy street was not."

"First Presidential Portrait (1843)"

6

"John Quincy Adams was the first U.S. president to have his photograph taken, captured by Philip Haas in Washington, D.C."

"First Portrait Of A Woman (1839 Or 1840)"

7

"John Draper made history by capturing the first-ever portrait that wasn’t a selfie. The person portrayed here is his sister, Dorothy, making this the first portrait of a woman in the history of photography."

"First Camera Phone Photograph (1997)"

8

"In Santa Cruz, California, tech pioneer Phillipe Kahn made history by being the first to snap and share a photo with his cellphone. He ingeniously combined a digital camera with a phone to create a primitive camera phone. Then he used it to send real-time pictures of his baby daughter to loved ones."

"First Photograph Ever - Enhanced (1826)"

9

"An enhanced version of Niépce’s photograph was realized in 1952 by Helmut Gersheim, who made the faint shadows clear and the shapes easier to make out."

"The First Aerial Photograph (1860)"

10

"In 1860, long before drones were even an idea in some tech genius’ mind, the first aerial photo was snapped from a hot air balloon. It shows the city of Boston from a bird’s-eye view, 2,000 feet up. The artist behind the lens, James Wallace Black, named it “Boston, as the Eagle and the Wild Goose See It.”"

"First Underwater Portrait (1899)"

11

"In 1899, Louis Boutan, a French biologist and photographer, made history by capturing the first underwater portrait. His brave subject, Emil Racovitza, had to pose and hold still for 30 minutes in the waters of Banyuls-Sur-Mer, France."

"First Photograph Of People Drinking (1844)"

12

"David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson established Scotland’s first photography studio and gained fame for capturing photographs of everyday life. This shot, taken in Edinburgh, is the first to depict a group of individuals enjoying a drink together."

"First Full-Color Landscape Photograph (1877)"

13

"16 years passed after Maxwell and Sutton before a full-color photograph of a landscape was taken. Louis Ducos du Hauron was the person who successfully captured this image of Agen, France."

"First News Photograph (1848)"

14

"The first photograph ever used to illustrate a news story? Nobody knows who took it, but it shows the Rue Saint-Maur-Popincourt in Paris shortly after a battle between government forces and demonstrating workers that left thousands dead."

"The First Sun Photograph (1845)"

15

"On April 2nd, 1845, French scientists Louis Fizeau and Leon Foucault snapped the first-ever picture of the sun using the daguerreotype process. It only took 1/60 of a second to capture this historic moment, and if you take a closer look, you can see some sunspots too."

"First Instagram Photograph (2010)"

16

"The first snap ever shared on Instagram is of a dog at a Mexican taco stand, captured by one of the co-creators, Kevin Systrom. Systrom jokingly said, “Had I known it would have been the first photo posted on Instagram, I would have tried a little harder.”'

"The First Photograph Of A Black Hole (2019)"

17

"In April 2019, history was made as the world got a glimpse of the first photograph of a black hole. This monumental achievement resulted from a team effort by over 200 international astronomers who worked tirelessly for years. They used an array of powerful telescopes and supercomputers around the globe to crunch the petabytes of data to produce the awe-inspiring image."

"The First Full-Color Photograph (1861)"

18

"James Clerk Maxwell, a mathematical physicist, is credited with taking the first color photograph. The photograph, which depicts a three-colored ribbon, was unveiled by Maxwell during a lecture in 1861 and is considered the first durable color photograph. While Thomas Sutton, the inventor of the SLR, pressed the shutter button, it was Maxwell’s scientific process that made the photograph possible."

"First Photograph Of Motion (1878)"

19

"Eadweard Muybridge pioneered the art of capturing motion in photographs by using a set of cameras triggered one after another. These frame-by-frame photographs, taken in Palo Alto, California, were essential in advancing moving picture technology."