Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre      Boulevard du Temple, Paris       1838  Hey, here’s a piece of interesting trivia (at least it is to me) about this photo.  Not only is it super old, one of the original daguerrotypes, made by the dude who invented that process (in case you were under the impression the connection between the photographer’s  surname and the name of the process was an inexplicable and amazing coincidence), but this is the first known photo to feature a human being in it.  The exposure time for this shot, and others of its era, was approximately 10 minutes, which made all moving things appear as indefinite blurs in the final image.  But, if you look toward the lower left corner of the shot, you’ll see a man standing with one leg up.  It’s not clear from the image, but it appears he was having his shoes shined, and he had to stand pretty still while the process was ongoing, hence his being captured in silver, being removed from the anonymity of the dust-bin of history and being given at least a semi-permanent spot in the firmament of human creativity…although still anonymously.

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre      Boulevard du Temple, Paris       1838 

Hey, here’s a piece of interesting trivia (at least it is to me) about this photo.  Not only is it super old, one of the original daguerrotypes, made by the dude who invented that process (in case you were under the impression the connection between the photographer’s  surname and the name of the process was an inexplicable and amazing coincidence), but this is the first known photo to feature a human being in it.  The exposure time for this shot, and others of its era, was approximately 10 minutes, which made all moving things appear as indefinite blurs in the final image.  But, if you look toward the lower left corner of the shot, you’ll see a man standing with one leg up.  It’s not clear from the image, but it appears he was having his shoes shined, and he had to stand pretty still while the process was ongoing, hence his being captured in silver, being removed from the anonymity of the dust-bin of history and being given at least a semi-permanent spot in the firmament of human creativity…although still anonymously.

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