First Exposures: Writings from the Beginning of Photography

An exact date for the invention of photography is evasive. Scientists and amateurs alike were working on a variety of photographic processes for much of the early nineteenth century. Thus most historians refer to the year 1839 as the “first” year of photography, not because the sensational new medium was invented then, but because that is the year it was introduced to the world.

After more than 175 years, and for the first time in English, First Exposures: Writings from the Beginning of Ph...