The world's first photograph by Joseph Niepce. Taken from a window of his Le Gras estate at Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, France, it was produced by exposing a bitumen-coated pewter plate in a camera ...

The invention of the camera is usually attributed to Frenchman Louis Daguerre - who was first to announce his invention in 1839, and gave his name to the first popular form of photograph – the ...

Photography began as a fragile chemical experiment, not a convenience. Early images required hours or even days of exposure. Subjects had to remain perfectly still to appear at all. The process was ...