Saturday, August 25, 2012

earliest photographic self-portrait


Robert Cornelius, self-portrait, Philadelphia, 1839, facing front, arms crossed. 
Inscription on backing: The first light-picture ever taken. 1839.

One of the first photographs made in the United States, this quarter-plate daguerreotype, taken in the yard of the Cornelius family's lamp-making business in Philadelphia, is said to be the earliest photographic portrait of a person.

He's hot. Very hot.  

25 comments:

  1. I love how his arms are crossed in front...confident, with a look of anticipation...so handsome!

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  2. Robert Cornelius. You have my attention darling.

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  3. I hope his mother gave him a comb for Christmas. He reminds me of someone!

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    1. I second that, Tess! I was thinking fingers, not a comb ;P

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    2. Stand back, Margaret...I've already got my fingers in his hair...

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    3. Have a quick look at my blog. I shall delete it very soon.

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  4. he looks like he could have been an ancestor. he had the photographic savvy. love the hair, too.

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  5. is 'photographic' a word???

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  6. Oh, He caught my eye! Wow. (I think he should be a Magpie subject FOR SURE! Yowzers!

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  7. That's quite the look he's got in his eyes.

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  8. He has that "Hmm...?" look.
    I wonder what he's thinking. Marvellous picture.

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  9. Most interesting Tess - he certainly has a smouldering look about him.

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  10. Smouldering. Yes, that's it. Even without combing his hair! :^)

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  11. Very cool! He has a very modern look to him.

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  12. You sure that isn't robert downey jr in the early yrs?
    Seriously, very cool. I love the early raw photography
    But he's dead, tess. Very dead:)
    Rick

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  13. Amazing that photography was that good so long ago. They do put a reality under the word pictures and of times and so much more immediate than paintings, up until then the only visual record.
    BTW, Any pic of yours is s delight.

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  15. hotness that cannot be denied.
    yep.

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  16. what a handsome man , dang.

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Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence.
― O. Henry (and me)