The First Selfie by Robert Cornelius

The first selfie by Robert Cornelius has been world-famous. Vogue of selfie brought in 21st century from the one did not sure who make the first attempt to start taking selfie with smartphone who had front camera. But before the invention of smartphone, he was Robert Cornelius in 1839.

About the first selfie man, Robert Cornelius

Robert Cornelius (b. 1 March 1809 — d. 10 Aug 1893) was a businessman (lamp manufacturer) but his nerves also had creative endings. Those endings finally invented a new and unique way to captured his portrait perfectly into a DSLR frame. The camera (DSLR) was first found in 1986 by Japanese company, Nikon. Cornelius, when captured the first selfie, took his 10 – 15 minutes. He might have spent more hours practising the different angles and positions, thus finely he captured the one in max 15 minutes.

Another photographer, Hippolyte Bayard found and broke the record a second time. He discovered his fine portrait and showed his skills of photography in 1847. The story of Bayard was unique and different from Robert. He was a pioneer in the history of photogenic era, which had recently begun in human fashion.

Hippolyte was the one who used to print white paper instantly and the man who presented the first public exhibition of photographs in the world (in Jun 24 1839). He took many photos of nature including plant specimens, posing himself with streets, buildings and urban civilization as it was his favourite passion.

Bayard was an expert in Direct Positive Process (a method of producing photographs of mid 18s) the process used to produced unique photocopy that could not reproduce. His most notable photo was “Self Portrait of Drowned Man” (it is called as the first fake photo) behind the photograph he wrote:

The corpse which you see here is that of M. Bayard, inventor of the process that has just been shown to you. As far as I know this indefatigable experimenter has been occupied for about three years with his discovery. The Government which has been only too generous to Monsieur Daguerre, has said it can do nothing for Monsieur Bayard, and the poor wretch has drowned himself. Oh the vagaries of human life….! … He has been at the morgue for several days, and no-one has recognized or claimed him. Ladies and gentlemen, you’d better pass along for fear of offending your sense of smell, for as you can observe, the face and hands of the gentleman are beginning to decay.

Despite being a founding member of “French Society of Photography” he considered the first photographer of France of historical sites in 1851.

Understanding pictorial time, no one could forget the below poem

Poem: “This Is A Photograph Of Me” by Margaret Atwood (Canadian Poet) — 1939

It was taken some time ago.
At first, it seems to be
a smeared
print: blurred lines and grey flecks
blended with the paper;

then, as you scan
it, you see in the left-hand corner
a thing that is like a branch: part of a tree
(balsam or spruce) emerging
and, to the right, halfway up
what ought to be a gentle
slope, a small frame house.

In the background there is a lake,
and beyond that, some low hills.

(The photograph was taken
the day after I drowned.

I am in the lake, in the centre
of the picture, just under the surface.

It is difficult to say where
precisely, or to say
how large or small I am:
the effect of water
on light is a distortion

but if you look long enough,
eventually
you will be able to see me.)

Margaret Atwood

Read another painter turn transgender Einar Wegener to Lili Elbe priced death