We’re definitely living in the golden age of photography. Get this: humans now take more photos every two minutes than we did during the entire 19th century.
Hey, let that sink in for a bit.
According to estimates by InfoTrends, a total of 1.2 trillion digital photos will be taken across the planet in 2023 — roughly 160 pictures for every one of the 7.5 billion people on the planet.
So yes, photography has made quantum leaps in the past dozen decades.
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We did some digging as we were curious about what the first known photograph of Montreal looks like — and how old it is.
While speaking with Marc-André Champagne, the Public Relations Officer at the McCord Stewart Museum, we found out the oldest known photograph of Montreal dates back to the early 1850s.
Champagne says he asked his team at the museum and Christian Vachon, the documentary art curator, says the following shot is generally considered to be the earliest views of Montreal — dating back to circa 1851 or 1852.
Champagne and Vachon confirmed the photo was a daguerreotype from the Library and Archives Canada. The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process and dates back to 1839 in the history of photography. Each daguerreotype is a unique image on a silvered copper plate.
Robert Lisle – Library and Archives Canada
Champagne says the McCord Stewart Museum had a photograph in its collection that was dated 1851 but recent research concluded it was done after 1853, meaning the above shot is Montreal’s oldest known.
The 170-plus-year-old photo has views of Beaver Hall Hill and Saint Antoine Street (formerly called Craig Street) in the foreground.
In the centre, you can see St. Andrew’s Church — which was completed in 1850. In the top right, you can see the front of St. Patrick’s Church, which opened in 1847.
For context, the world’s first camera photograph is said to have been taken in 1826 by French inventor Joseph NicĂ©phore NiĂ©pce. The photo, simply titled, “View from the Window at Le Gras,” is said to be the world’s earliest surviving photograph.
It might make you think how far we’ve come next time you add a sepia filter to your lunch.
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