1. The technology 2. The human subject

First photo of a person

Boulevard du Temple, Paris, 3. Arondissement is the first ever photograph of a human being. The daguerreotype was taken in Paris by Louis Daguerre (1787–1851), on a date that has been calculated as between 24 April and 4 May 1838. It is of a busy street, but because exposure time was over ten minutes, the city traffic was moving too much to appear. The exception is a man in the bottom left corner, who stood still getting his boots polished long enough to show. Less discernible, but also visible, is the boot black. As Geoffrey Batchen has noted, this is therefore also the first photo to illustrate both labour and class difference. See also Jenkins, who notes the possibility that there are one or two other people also discernible. Daguerre gave a triptych of daguerreotypes, of which this was one (with another of the same view, taken later in the day), to King Ludwig I of Bavaria, and they were displayed at the Arts Association in Munich from 20 October 1839. Eventually they came into the custody of the Fotomuseum in Munich, where in the 1970s an attempt at cleaning succeeded in erasing the images. The image as seen today is a reproduction of a photographic copy made by Beaumont Newhall, the historian of photography, in 1937. [History of Art: History of Photography] NB Although the strongest evidence supports this image, an interesting case has been made for a daguerreotype image made by Daguerre and Mathurin-Joseph Fordos, of the Pont Neuf in Paris, and now preserved in the Musée des Arts et Métiers. It's argued that this could actually date from the summer of 1837, but at any event prior to the Boulevard du Temple image. See Gunthert, or the same page translated.

First portrait photo of a person

According to John Johnson (1813–1871), the first daguerreotype portrait was of himself, made in New York by Alexander S. Wolcott (1804–1844) on 6 or 7 October 1839. This was tiny, and has not survived. (Hannavy) However, Howard R. McManus has convincingly argued that John William Draper (1811–1882), professor of chemistry at the University of New York, accomplished successful portrait daguerreotypes as early as 23 September 1839, the first such being of his assistant William Henry Goode, taken in the university chapel. (McManus—First) Draper's daguerreotype of Goode is said to have still been in existence in 1890. (Eder) McManus includes an image of a flawed daguerreotype plate (from his own collection), in which the subject is very difficult to make out, but which he speculates may in fact be an experimental portrait photograph of William Henry Goode, from 22 or 23 September 1839. Generally accepted as the earliest surviving photographic portrait image of a human ever produced is the approximately quarter plate daguerreotype by Robert Cornelius [1809–1893], a head-and-shoulders [self-]portrait, facing front, with arms crossed (above), dating from 1839 [Oct. or Nov.]. [LC-USZC4-5001 DLC]. Written on the paper backing is "The first light picture ever taken. 1839." The photograph, now at the Library of Congress in Washington DC, was taken outside his place of business on 8th Street between Market and Chestnut, in Philadelphia. The Cornelius daguerreotype is not uncontested as the earliest surviving photographic portrait. Another strong contender is the self-portrait of the Baltimore daguerreotypist Henry Fitz (1808–1863), now held by the Smithsonian, which also dates from late 1839. This is reproduced in Newhall, and in Wikimedia Commons. NB An interesting argument has been made for an earlier candidate than any of these, a daguerreotype portrait of a M. Huet, apparently by Daguerre himself, and dated 1837 on the back. This image is in the collection of Marc Pagneux. It does seem established that Daguerre was experimenting with portraits in 1837, and the portrait could be one such. See Gunthert, or the same page translated; and Gunthert & Roquencourt, (translated); and Wood.

First photo, and first portrait photo, of a woman

In 1855 the photographer Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791–1872) claimed that he had taken full-length portrait daguerreotypes of his daughter, and also photographs of her in groups with some of her young friends, in September or the beginning