The first photograph in history was taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 using Bitumen of Judea, a substance that becomes insoluble in lavender oil when exposed to light.
The exposure time of 8 hours resulted in the buildings being lit by the sun from both the right and the left.
While this was not Niépce’s first attempt at photography, it was the first time he was able to permanently fix the image. Some researchers believe that the first photograph may actually have been taken by Englishman Thomas Wedgwood, who conducted studies on silver nitrate, potentially preceding the birth of photography by 20 years. However, the first photograph for which we have absolute certainty is Niépce’s 1826 image on Bitumen of Judea.
Wedgwood’s photographs have not been verified, and his writings suggest that he discovered a way to reproduce images through a photographic process but was unable to fix them permanently.
