The Oldest Surviving Human Photo
The oddly elongated figure at the center of this photograph might look a little creepy, but he is actually the first human ever to be caught on camera. The picture, View of the Boulevard du Temple, was taken by Louis Daguerre in 1838.
Lengthy exposure times generally meant that photographing humans was impossible – they would need to stay tremendously still for the picture to actually record their image. The man in this photo, though, has a good reason to stay so still: he’s having his shoes shined. Thus, he unwittingly became the world’s first photo model.