The first picture was taken by Nicéphore Niépce in 1827. It shows the view from a second-floor window of his house and the surrounding countryside. The sandy 20×25 centimeters image marks the genesis of a cultural transformation that since the advent of movies has made visual storytelling the preferred means for crafting a persuasive argument.

When Nicéphore took the picture, it was already known that an image could be created using the bleaching effects of light. In fact, Nicéphore refers to the process as heliography, which exactly means “sun writing”.  His crucial contribution was to come up with a way that would make the image created by the energy of the sun rays permanent – to fix the image.

The rudimentary technology that he was using required to make a very long exposure. He left his camera pointing out the window for several days and nights. Until one evening Nicéphore decided to take the thin leaf of tin he had coated with a concoction of Bitumen of Judea that served as film and rinse it with turpentine. Then, and this we have to imagine, he sat down stunned with amazement, his hands holding the first record of the ephemeral passing of time.

Things took off after his successful experiment. A torrent of rapid developments would first make photography readily available and to became the people’s art form. Then motion film, television, and camera phones brought the inexorable cultural revolution of the 20th century. TikTok influencers, instant replay and our ability to peer into the vast expanses of distant galaxies are result of the events that took place in that early spring day when Nicéphore took a picture of his backyard.

mariano p