Daguerreotype - Photographing Humans

Photographing Humans

At the time the process was introduced, daguerreotyping a brightly sunlit subject typically required about ten minutes of exposure in the camera, so the earliest daguerreotypes were of still lifes and landscapes. The oldest well-documented daguerreotype featuring human subjects is Daguerre's own 1838 view of the Boulevard du Temple, a busy street in Paris. The street appears deserted because the traffic (which would have been horse-drawn carriages) was moving and left no impression; but a man having his shoes shined and the bootblack servicing him are visible because they stayed in position long enough for their images to be recorded.