Two early "Selfie" photographs

Sunday 28 June 2020

Apparently, the first selfie has been credited to one of the American pioneers of photography, Robert Cornelius, who produced a daguerreotype of himself in 1839. It was not known as a selfie at the time of course, the name has been credited to an unknown Australian:

The first use of the term was on a public forum in September 2002. An Australian man took a photo of his torn lip after a drunken night out and was seeking advice about the stitches that he had just received. The man’s identity has remained a mystery, and he is surely missing out on much fame or notoriety. Many linguists have analyzed the term and believe that it is very typical of the Australian language to shorten words and end them with (ie); other examples include barbie for barbecue, firie for firefighter, postie for postman and tinnie for a can of beer.

Culture Trip website

The two photographs here certainly do not date back to 1839, but they are still interesting as they were taken with an extremely long bulb shutter release mechanism. Early cameras had a "B" setting which referred to "Bulb" or sometimes "Brief" exposure. The bulb was a detachable rubber pneumatic shutter release as shown in this illustration from Wikipedia. When the shutter was set to "B", the pneumatic release kept the shutter open for as long as the photographer squeezed the bulb.

In the second photograph below, the bulb is clearly visible in the man's hand, and also the very long line to the camera. Sadly, there is no information written on the photograph as to who the people are.

Unfortunately there was obviously a fault with my time machine as I have no idea when or where I have been! If you have any idea as to the location or time period, please do get in touch.

From "Time and Again" by Jack Finney (1970):

Because I've always felt a wonder at old photographs not easy to explain. Maybe I don't need to explain; maybe you'll recognize what I mean. I mean the sense of wonder, staring at the strange clothes and vanished backgrounds, at knowing that what you're seeing was once real. That light really did reflect into a lens from these lost faces and objects. That these people were really there once, smiling into a camera. You could have walked into the scene then, touched those people, and spoken to them. You could actually have gone into that strange outmoded old building and seen what now you never can – what was just inside the door.

The wonder is even stronger with old stereoscopic views – the almost, but not quite, identical pair of photographs mounted side by side on stiff cardboard, that, looked at through the viewer, give a miraculous effect of depth. It's never been a mystery to me why the whole country was once crazy about them. Because the good ones, the really clear sharp photographs, are so real: Insert a view, slide it into focus, and the old scene leaps out at you, astonishingly three-dimensional. And then, for me, the awe becomes intense. Because now you really see the arrested moment, so actual it seems that if you watch intently, the life caught here must continue. That the raised horse's hoof so startlingly distinct in the foreground must move down to the solidness of pavement below it again; those carriage wheels revolve, the girl walk closer, the man move on out of the scene. The feeling that the tantalizing reality of the vanished moment might somehow be seized – that if you watch long enough you might detect that first nearly imperceptible movement – is the answer to the question Kate has asked me more than once: "How can you sit there so long – you hardly move! – staring endlessly at the very same picture?"

Time travel with old photographs

Two early "Selfie" photographs

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From "Time and Again" by Jack Finney (1970):

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Time travel with old photographs

Two early "Selfie" photographs

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From "Time and Again" by Jack Finney (1970):

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