Daguerreotype

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, View from the Window at Le Gras (enhanced version by Helmut Gershein), c. 1826-7. Oil-treated bitumen. 20 × 25 cm.
What You Don't Know About the World’s Oldest Photograph
Not particularly impressive at first glance, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce's View from the Window at Le Gras is a grey-hued pewter plate with the blurred shadow-shapes of treelines and buildings. Despite…
old image of Capitoline Lion in the Roman Forum
Conserving One of MoMA's Oldest Photographs
Tarnish is slowly engulfing one of the oldest objects in MoMA's collection, a daguerreotype from 1842.
Bayard
Why this photography pioneer faked his own death
In 1839, Hippolyte Bayard invented photography. And nobody cared.