Through its culture, gastronomy, architecture and so much more, Paris stands out on a global and even historical scale! And it's far from over. On the occasion of the bicentennial of photography, some fascinating anecdotes have resurfaced, including one in particular: it was in Paris that the first photograph in history featuring humans was captured.
A plaque to mark this historic moment
Last October 15th, a small bronze plaque titled "An Unforeseen Detail" was placed on Place de la République in Paris. What does it represent? The very spot where
Have you ever wondered exactly where the two people in the first photograph in History to contain humans were located? This remarkable image was taken by Louis Daguerre — the inventor of photography — in the spring of 1838. As Radio France points out, it shows a shoeshine boy and his customer.Voir cette publication sur Instagram
Two years of work to pinpoint the exact location
To find the very precise spot where these two people were in 1838, three filmmakers dedicated two years of work to it: Maximilien Van Aertryck, Axel Danielson, and Kalle Boman. « We had a 3D scan done of the entire Place de la République and Boulevard du Temple to get the exact distances between all the buildings, using the cadastral maps from that era », Maximilien Van Aertryck explains to Radio France.
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The three men draw a striking parallel between this historical photo and those from the October 17th demonstrations, which were extensively filmed and photographed with cutting-edge cameras, and whose images spread around the world within hours — proof of an unprecedented technological evolution over the span of two centuries. "It's quite fascinating that this plate finds itself in the midst of all this," adds Maximilien Van Aertryck.