An image of Paris' Boulevard du Temple taken by Daguerre in the same year is famous for being the first photograph of a person (below visible near the lower left corner), and it is also one the first known photographs of an urban scene.
Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey (1804-1892) was one of first architecture photographers, using to almost exclusively use the daguerreotype for take of architecture photography, the originator of a thoroughly modern conception of photography. His first known photos, taken as early as 1841, focused on the significant sites of his native Paris, including Tuileries Palace and Notre Dame.
Three years after, in 1842, Girault de Prangey set out on an adventure across Europe and into the Middle East, lugging custom photographic equipment that weighed more than a fifty kilograms, the world’s first practical camera. He returned with over a thousand photographic plates, including the first surviving daguerreotypes made in Spain, Greece, Egypt, Anatolia, Palestine and Syria.
He stored his daguerreotypes in custom-built wood boxes; in addition, he carefully sorted, labeled, and dated the images so that he could retrieve them for future use, occasionally recording when he utilized them, for example, as the basis for a painting or published print. He also had them inventoried several times during his lifetime. In essence, he created the world’s oldest photographic archive.
Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey (1804-1892) was one of first architecture photographers, using to almost exclusively use the daguerreotype for take of architecture photography, the originator of a thoroughly modern conception of photography. His first known photos, taken as early as 1841, focused on the significant sites of his native Paris, including Tuileries Palace and Notre Dame.
Three years after, in 1842, Girault de Prangey set out on an adventure across Europe and into the Middle East, lugging custom photographic equipment that weighed more than a fifty kilograms, the world’s first practical camera. He returned with over a thousand photographic plates, including the first surviving daguerreotypes made in Spain, Greece, Egypt, Anatolia, Palestine and Syria.
He stored his daguerreotypes in custom-built wood boxes; in addition, he carefully sorted, labeled, and dated the images so that he could retrieve them for future use, occasionally recording when he utilized them, for example, as the basis for a painting or published print. He also had them inventoried several times during his lifetime. In essence, he created the world’s oldest photographic archive.
![Ivo Precek, Pracovní tabule II [Work table II], 1965. "From the center of Europe. Czech photography, 1912-1974". Image courtesy of Juan March Foundation](/sites/default/files/styles/mopis_home_news_category_slider_desktop/public/lead-images/metalocus_fundacionjuanmarch_fotografiacheca_precek-.-pracovni-tabule-ii-1965_p01.webp?h=e382d23c&itok=PryOojGF "Ivo Precek, Pracovní tabule II [Work table II], 1965. \"From the center of Europe. Czech photography, 1912-1974\". Image courtesy of Juan March Foundation")
