The first captured photograph
c.1826-7, France
Inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce created the world’s oldest surviving photograph using a camera obscura and heliography, a technique that he developed. His success was followed by a long line of advancements over the next two centuries, from the daguerreotype process to digital photography, enabling us to capture images in real time. Thanks to photography, moments could be documented, copied and widely distributed, changing the way we see the world forever.