I love the early birth stages of photography and what has been passed down to us. I came across this image and it is wonderful.
From here.
To quote...
This is one of the earliest known photographs of a human. A self portrait taken in 1839, it shows a young Robert Cornelius (1809-1893) standing outside his family’s lamp-making shop in Philadelphia. Cornelius was an American of Dutch descent whose knowledge of metallurgical chemistry was to help in perfecting the process of silver-plating, then employed in the production of daguerreotypes. It had previously been assumed that the time necessary for a photograph to be exposed was simply too long for portaiture to be considered. But, by making this striking image, Cornelius proved the concensus wrong and then went on to develop a chemical means of accelerating the process. […] This photograph was made 171 years ago, and yet Robert Cornelius looks as contemporary and ‘immediate’ as any young man you might happen to pass on the streets today. He might be in a fashion publicity shot, or some moody modern musician.
It's images like this that really connect us to the past i feel. Often photographs from the early 19th century look distant and it's hard to connect with the other. Thought i'd share. Anyone else got any images from the past they'd like to share?
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