15 First Photographs Ever Taken
When you purchase through affiliate links on our site, we may earn a commission. Here’s how it works.
The first photographs and cameras were significantly different from modern SLRs and DSLRs, but even then, photographers managed to capture important historical events and simply preserve the memory of how everything in our world was organized 200 years ago.
At the moment, the history of photography continues and every day talented specialists find a new way to improve the image. For those curious about how the first pictures were taken and what equipment was available at that period, we have prepared this informative post.
15 First Photographs You Have to See
Today we see a crisp multi-colored picture, but the first photographs were black and white, with a huge amount of noise, lack of light and an excessive amount of shadows. Anyway, each coming year brought serious advancements and photo editing became more professional.
1. View from the Window of the Niepce Estate in Burgundy 1826
Many experts in this field claim that this image belongs to the oldest photographs of its kind. The photograph was taken back in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce from the window of the Niepce estate in Burgundy. He got a photograph using a tin plate camera that was covered with asphalt.
2. First Photo with a Person
The earliest photograph in which a person is present was taken in 1838 by the inventor Louis Drager. It took the man about 10 minutes of exposure to “create” this photo. But unfortunately, the image turned out to be almost empty, since everything was constantly moving, the camera did not have time to focus on what was happening, but if you look closer to the lower left corner, you can see a human figure.
Apparently, he stayed motionless for a long time and that is why he went down in history as the first person in the picture.
3. First Self-Portrait in 1839
It is known that the first self-portrait was taken in 1839 by the already famous photographer Robert Cornelius. Also, the man gained fame for being the first in the United States to open a photo studio. Robert, at the moment of removing the lens cap, decided to capture himself, and stood in front of the camera for several minutes. Thus, he created the world's first "selfie". If you have found an old image that looks damaged, you can use our photo restoration service and greatly enhance its quality.
4. First Photo of US President John Quincy Adams
This is believed to be one of the most praiseworthy first photographs ever taken. John Quincy Adams is the sixth President of the United States and the first one photographed.
The image was taken in 1843 at Quincy's home in Massachusetts at a time when he was no longer in the presidency. Before that, there was another image of the president dated back to 1841, but unfortunately it was lost. That photo depicts William Henry Harrison.
5. First Aerial Photo
The first aerial photo was taken in 1858 by photographer Gaspard-Felix Tournachon (or Nadar) from a hot air balloon. Modern people frequently resort to aerial photography drone services when they want to take images of vast areas.
In the photo, you can see the capital of the French state, Paris. This picture was recognized as the first in history taken from a height. Unfortunately, the picture he took hasn’t survived, so the earliest aerial image is “Boston, as the Eagle and the Wild Goose See It” taken by James Wallace Black in 1860.
6. First Image from Space
The oldest known photograph from space is considered to be a photo taken in 1946 from an automatic V-2 rocket; it is one of those rare historical photos that made history.
The shooting was carried out with a movie camera using a 35mm film from a height of 105 kilometers. Unfortunately, upon returning to Earth, the camera didn’t survive, but the same film with the first image from space was preserved.
7. First Erotic Photo
The author of this image is the French photographer Felix Jacquet Antoine Moulin. In 1849, he owned a photographic studio and there in 1850-1852 he took an image of a naked girl from14 to 16 years old. Later his work was seized, and Moulin himself went to prison for the erotic content in his images.
8. First Photomontage
The first photo montage dates back to 1858 and it was created by Henry Peach Robinson. He combined several negatives and got the image that we see. This picture is called "Fading Away" and was compiled from five different images. At that time, the photo caused indignation among people and violent response, since it depicts a girl, who died of tuberculosis.
9. First Color Photo 1861
The technologies evolved rather fast and a famous scientist James Maxwell was able to create a color image in 1861. This first color photograph was a projection onto the screen of three ranges of colors, green, red and blue.
10. First Photo of a Natural Phenomenon
The first natural phenomenon captured was lightning. William Jennings used a film camera on September 2, 1882, and managed to get such an image. He captured the moment when the lightning formed a zigzag shape. He wanted to show that lightning is more fascinating and complex than we used to think.
11. First Digital Photo
The first digital photograph was taken in 1957. It depicted Russell's little son Keesh. It was taken 20 years before Kodak invented its first digital camera. A photograph is a digital scan of a film image, resulting in a square picture.
12. First Photo of the Fully Illuminated Earth
The photo titled "The Blue Marble" was the first of its kind. It shows one side of our planet. The photo was taken on December 7, 1972. It was possible to capture the Earth fully illuminated due to the fact that the Sun was directly behind the astronauts, thereby perfectly illuminating the planet.
13. First Photo from Mars
The very first photograph from Mars was taken by Viking 1 after landing on the red planet on July 20, 1976. The image shows the rocks and structure of the planet's landscape, which was subsequently studied by the best and brightest.
14. First Photo of a Black Hole
Despite the fact that technologies in the field of photography are developing very quickly, but only on April 10, 2019, a person using the Even Horizon telescope was able to capture a black hole in the image.
15. First Image on Instagram
On July 16, 2010, one of the developers of the social network Instagram, Kevin Systrom, uploaded the first post in the app. The first Instagram image shows the cute Systrom puppy sitting on a taco stand in Mexico.
