188-Year-Old Mystery of Photography's First Human Subjects Solved

Agree. I also find this photo to be very profound. Generations of people lived and died and we will never see their faces. After this it’s like a great veil was lifted on the human story.

I wonder in our digital age how long our images will endure. Will the vast quantities of images we have now have disappeared entirely 200 years from now and the photographic period be the only enduring image record? It’s interesting to think about.

That is the spot where the shoe-shine boy was? Is there a marker for where Daguerre's studio was?

I think a daguerrotype might be reversed, as its a direct positive image, so thats probably intentional to match the layout.

Did a bit of googling, it looks like the "traditional" view of the image is mirrored, and the plaque version is what you'd have actually seen.

https://mashable.com/archive/first-photograph-of-a-human

Yeah, this photo from Daguerre is the first one known to feature a human subject, not the first photo.