The first selfie
Photographer: Robert Cornelius
Date: October 1839
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Robert Cornelius created this daguerreotype self-portrait in October or November 1839 in the yard behind his family's lamp store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, making it one of the earliest photographic portraits ever made. Cornelius, a chemist and photography enthusiast who had learned the daguerreotype process, set up the camera and then ran into the frame, sitting for the required one-minute exposure before replacing the lens cap. He wrote on the back of the plate: 'The first light Picture ever taken.' It predates the official announcement of the daguerreotype process by Louis Daguerre to the French Academy of Sciences on August 19, 1839, though it was taken afterward. The original plate is held at the Library of Congress.
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