Who took the first ‘Selfie’?
Apparently, Paris Hilton once claimed to have taken the first ‘Selfie’, but I am sorry to disappoint, she didn’t.
The first record of a photographic self-portrait, or a “Selfie’, as we refer to them today, was taken between October or November 1839 by a young 30-year-old American, Robert Cornelius. He was an amateur photographer and chemist, the latter interest would playing a significant role in his ability to take his own self-portrait. So below, is the first ever known, photographic self portrait ever taken.
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This fact that he was an amateur chemist is a significant detail as to how he was able to take his self-portrait in the first place. Why? Well, two years earlier, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (1787–1851), invented and demonstrated his ‘Daguerreotype photographic process’ to the Paris Academy of the Sciences in 1837. This was only two years before to Cornelius took the first known self-portrait.
The camera design was a bulky wooden box with a lens and a dark slide connected on the other. It was expensive to have your portrait taken in 1839, so it was only available to the rich.
So why did lots of people not think of taking their own self-portraits? The reason is simple, just to prepare a single a light sensitive photographic Daguerreotype plate, involved using quiet hazardous chemicals, applied inside a sealed light proof box. First, before putting it inside the box, a copper plate was coated with a thin layer of silver, then polished to a high mirror finish. Then, the silver coated copper plate was then placed in the lightproof box where it is exposed to Iodine vapour, thus making the surface a yellow-rose colour and light sensitive. The plate was then put in a light proof holder, or a dark-slide as they are known, and placed in the back of the camera. Once the photograph was taken, the dark-slide was returned to the lightproof box, and the photographic plate removed and held over very hot mercury, and to fix the resulting image dipped in a solution of sodium thiosulfate or salt and then toned with gold chloride. So, as you call see, the process was not for the faint hearted.
As Robert Cornelius was keen amateur chemist, this convoluted photographic process a lot less intimidating for him to take the first ever self-portrait.