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Louis Daguerre's 1838 photograph of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris shows a busy street as almost empty: the exposure took minutes, so moving people and carriages left no trace. The only clear figures are a man having his boots polished and, probably, the shoe-shiner, who kept still long enough to show up.

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Daguerre, a French painter of theatre scenery, took the picture from his studio window at eight in the morning in late April or early May 1838 (possibly 1837). In his process, the daguerreotype, the image formed directly on a silver-coated copper plate. It cut the exposure from the eight hours or more needed for the oldest surviving photograph, taken by Nicéphore Niépce in the 1820s, to four or five minutes: still far too long for walkers and carriages. Like every daguerreotype, the picture is a mirror image. Daguerre announced his invention in January 1839 and that October gave this plate to King Ludwig I of Bavaria. The original was later ruined by a failed restoration, so the image we know comes from copies made in the 1930s by the photography historian Beaumont Newhall.

Türkçe oku
Louis Daguerre'in 1838'de Paris'te çektiği Boulevard du Temple fotoğrafında kalabalık cadde neredeyse boş görünür: Poz dakikalarca sürdüğü için yürüyenler ve arabalar iz bırakmamıştır. Net seçilen tek insanlar, ayakkabısını boyatan bir adamla büyük olasılıkla boyacısıdır; ikisi de görüntüye geçecek kadar kıpırdamadan durmuştur.

Fransız dekor ressamı Daguerre, fotoğrafı 1838'in (belki de 1837'nin) nisan sonunda ya da mayıs başında, sabah saat sekizde stüdyosunun penceresinden çekti. Adını taşıyan dagerotip yönteminde görüntü doğrudan gümüş kaplı bir bakır levhanın üzerinde oluşuyordu. Bugüne kalan en eski fotoğrafı Nicéphore Niépce 1820'lerde çekmişti ve onun için en az sekiz saat poz gerekmişti. Daguerre'in yöntemi bu süreyi dört beş dakikaya indirdi; yine de yürüyen insanlar ve atlı arabalar için bu çok uzundu. Bütün dagerotiplerde olduğu gibi görüntünün sağı ile solu yer değiştirmiştir. Daguerre buluşunu Ocak 1839'da duyurdu, aynı yılın ekiminde de bu levhayı Bavyera Kralı I. Ludwig'e armağan etti. Özgün levha sonradan başarısız bir onarım girişiminde harap oldu. Bugün bildiğimiz görüntü, 1930'larda çekilmiş kopyalardan gelir; bu kopyaları fotoğraf tarihçisi Beaumont Newhall yapmıştı.

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Background reading: Boulevard du Temple (photograph)
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