Boulevard

Photography: BOULEVARD DU TEMPLE PARIS BOULEVARD

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Photographer: LOUIS DAGUERRE

Genre: Documentary, street

Date: 1838 or 1839

Location: Paris, France

Format: Daguerreotype

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“Taken of eight o’clock in the morning, this image by Louis Daguerre (1787-1851) of a central Parisian boulevard appears eerily empty. This is due to the properties of the early photographic method used to create it. The daguerreotype required between seven and fifteen minutes’ exposure time.

Moving figures on this normally bustling street are thus invisible; only the figures of a shoeshiner and his client appear on the sidewalk in the lower left on the frame. They are believed to be the first humans ever photographed. Although the image is badly scratched, many of its features remain remarkably clear.

Starting in 1829, Daguerre worked with Joseph Nicéphore Niépce to create a process to capture moving images. Niépce died in 1833, but Daguerre succeeded in 1834, using a process that involved passing mercury vapour over a light-sensitive silver iodide solution on a copper plate. The result was a unique and remarkably sharp mirrored image.

Daguerre published his findings in 1835 and made a deal with the French government for the rights to the process, securing lifetime pensions for himself and Niépce’s son. In 1839, France gifted the daguerreotype process to the world.” (CP)

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