Jim Lewis on the world's first photograph.

Somewhere Nabokov writes that, while many of us are terrified by the expanse of empty time that awaits us after death, few feel any fear of the endlessness that preceded our birth. But looking at the Niépce picture reverses death's order of sentiments; it induces a deep unease over the blankness of the past. You can't help but think of the things and lives that, before 1826, were never caught on film—all those men and women, with nothing to mark their presence or their passing. It inspires a kind of light-headedness. Photographs are not our only—or even our best—reminder of the past, but they are now our most common, so much so that, from sonograms on, there's probably not a person living in the United States who has never been caught on camera.

posted by James Russell | 4:44 PM