Colorized Boulevard du Temple by Daguerre
I had some free time tonight and came across an article regarding the first known photograph of a human by Daguerre. Curiosity got the best of me, so I decided that I’d take a look and see if I encounter anyone else in the image. As I looked, I quickly realized that I would have to clean-up this image and make some further adjustments to reveal more detail. I figured that I was probably a perfect candidate for analysis as it relates to my line of work. What I ended up with was a colorized version of this Daguerreotype. I didn’t spend too much time refining the image – maybe a little over a hour tops. I’m certain I could spend days if I really wanted to get it just perfect, but for the purpose this suited it just fine.
Here is the original black and white image:
Direct download link if you’re having problems viewing this in your browser:
Wikimedia Boulevard du Temple by Daguerre (right-click, save-as.)
Here is the colorized version of this photograph which helped bring out the details for me:
Direct download link if you’re having problems viewing this in your browser:
Boulevard du Temple by Daguerre colorized (right-click, save-as.)
Here is a version with my notes superimposed on top of the image noting my findings:
Direct download link if you’re having problems viewing this in your browser:
Boulevard du Temple by Daguerre color notes (right-click, save-as.)
In the end, I think I may have identified some additional people within this scene. I think I may have also identified the time of day and season. I can’t be 100% certain. In an ideal situation, I’d like to get my hands on the original plate in order to accurately scan it. That may bring out a little more detail, but I would imagine it would be minimal at best.
It would be great if other people would take a look at it and see if there’s anything that I missed.
UPDATE (11/1/2010)
Based on some very good observations and comments, I’ve made some updates to this image and highlighted other call-outs.
- I’ve changed the scene to spring for this version.
- I’ve removed the red from the street. It is most likely grey, but the grey makes the image slightly more difficult to interpret.
- The grass has been removed based on other, most recent photographs. I believe that this was probably a hard-packed clay instead.
- This might seem far-fetched, but a cat might be seen in a window (from Karen.)
- Based on a comment, I think that the person “getting his shoes shined” is actually someone at a water pump (thanks Coldcat.) I believe there may be two buckets at his feet.
- Based on a comment by “Mik in Montague”, there seems to be someone sitting to the left of the wheelchair/baby carriage. I now believe that they’re sitting on a bench which is facing us.
- To the right (behind the carriage) seems to be another person sitting behind the carriage. I’ve made out the shape of what seems to be an arm. Sarlix may have commented on this earlier.
- I’ve just noticed that there may be a little person sitting, facing the carriage in between the two people at the bench.
Here is the latest revised image:
Direct download link if you’re having problems viewing this in your browser:
Boulevard du Temple by Daguerre-modified (right-click, save-as.)
Here is a close-up of the person at the “water pump”:
Here is a close-up of two (perhaps even three) people possibly sitting at a bench to the right of the person above. Please note that a lot of the fine noise and “blocks” in this image is due to JPEG compression. The only way to really remove the noise is to take a better look at the original JPEG (if available assuming that is hasn’t changed much) or to rescan the original plate image:
Très bon travail, il me semble cependant que les toits des immeubles haussmanniens devraient avoir la couleur du zinc et non de la tuile.
@michel
Sorry I wrote my comment in French. I said good work but I guess the roofs of the haussmannian buildings (top left)should be grey as they are made of zinc.
Hi Michel. Thank you very much. No need to apologize for using French – that’s why I put a translate button at the top of this website. Besides, it’s a beautiful language. :)
It appears that you may have missed a person at the lower right under the red awning (facing left). Leg, foot, arm, and head seems clearly visible.
Near the foreground tree in the lower right? I can see something there too that resembles a person standing. We really need a better scan of the original – assuming that the original still exists.
Since I became fascinated with this photograph a week and a half ago (like many, I believe, drawn in by the recent news story on the US daguerrotype), I have been using some spatial filtering techniques to get a clearer view of the advertisement/sign on the side of the building in the distance and can contribute the following:
MEILLEUR
???????????
DE M. ARMES
104 RUE DE/DU ?
HUILE ?????
My real find is the arched MEILLEUR (Translation: BEST or SUPERIOR) at the top of the sign pretty much confirming this as an advertisement for some type of product (an oil cure?) Credit for ‘HUILE’ and ‘DU’ goes to GeorgeN above. I independently came up with the rest and believe ARMES or ALMES would be more likely French names although AXMES does fit the image.
My guess is that the street name may be abbreviated. For example, 104 RUE DU T. (for 104 Rue du Temple).
I am pretty sure that with the right sharpening and filtering process (and some expertise on 1838 Parisian ads) this sign can be fully retrieved providing an interesting historical reference.
By the way, I believe I have found 2 or 3 additional people that can be seen just to the left of the sign (peering out of the windows of the building – especially the window immediately to the left of the sign – enlarging the image is necessary to see these).
Do you notice a little boy looking out the 3rd floor window in the white building? He seemed to be staring at what Daguerre was doing with his camera in front of the white building. I have looked for a white building in the today’s photo and Google Street View photo but could not find it. Do you know where is the white building in the Google Street View photo? The white building seemed to be torn down and replaced with newer buildings while the other older buildings are still standing that Daguerre took this picture in 1838.
Number 4 under “Update (11/1/2010)” above saying the cat might be seen in the window that is an actual boy pulling the curtain aside and looking out the window in the white building, not the cat.
The other day I looked at the Daguerre’s photo, someone saw a horse-drawn carriage parking along the sidewalk on the street farther (in the background of this photo, just above the white building with a black tall chimney – a black dot that where the horse-drawn carriage parking is) from the shoe shiner boy and his customer at the corner of that street. I looked at it for a minute or so until I found it and that might be a horse standing with its horse-drawn carriage there. You need to look at it for a minute or so until you will find it. If it is, that is interesting!
@James
I also believe that to be a curious little boy or girl pulling back the drapes and looking out the window at Daguerre’s unusual activities. You can almost make out his/her ears, eyes and hair on a small round face.
This is the period of the July Monarchy (1830-1848) with King Louis-Philippe I and Prime Minister Count Molé as well as cultural figures such as Victor Hugo, de Balzac and George Sand/Chopin.
In that context, imagine for a moment the world inside that room from which the child is peering out: no electricity, no television, no radio, no computers, no Internet. Wooden floors, candles and gas lights, the smell of lit fireplaces and hearths. Information delivered by newspaper and human interaction. The lilt of spoken French wafting up and down the staircase. Relative silence and tranquility interrupted only by early-19th-century levels of street noise in the form of horse-drawn carriages. And then, across the street…like a time machine, a brilliant inventor slices in with a 20th-century technology and captures this world we weren’t normally meant to see. Fascinating and poignant somehow…
The Wikipedia page for this photograph also points to what looks like a woman’s face visible in the lower-right-hand-corner of the small 3rd window down from the top of the 1st column of windows.
As far as the existence of the white building today – it appears that it was eventually torn down but used to stand on what is now the middle of Place de la République (see this wonderful 2002 French study posted by philnext above.)
Here is the link to that 2002 French study again:
http://www.niepce-daguerre.com/boulevard_du_Temple_de_dag.html
Thank you for all of your comments. I’m fascinated and amazed at how others continue to find items within this image. It has been a very fun detective game for many of us.
As for a girl or a boy pulling aside the curtain – it could very well be, but I find the details extremely hard to determine unlike the person standing at the pump and the people sitting on the bench.
Phil Amend-
Thanks for your comment and information on the Boulevard Du Temple website. I have checked that website out for more information on the 1830s old map of Paris and Place de le Republique area. It seems to me that the fountain pool in the Place de le Republique area where the white building was once stood. I wish the white building could have still stood today as Daguerre took his picture in 1838 and could visit the Place de la Republique area as a tourist.
People lived during that time – no indoor toilet or shower (the outdoor toilet and shower should be located somewhere behind the buildings), no running water (they would have to travel a few blocks away or even 1 kilometer to the nearest water wells or a river or even a canal – you could see it on the 1830s Paris map) to collect water and bring it back to the apartment buildings, no refrigerator, no toilet paper, no towel paper, telephone or cell phones, no dogs or cats allowed in the apartment buildings because of fleas, etc., a few schools for children as the French law did not required for them to attend schools and no air conditioning, etc.
As for a woman’s face visible in the window in that photo, I looked at it all but did not see the woman’s face in that window. I saw the only little boy peering out the 3rd floor window in the white building and about four persons in the photo. Also, after someone said he or she saw the horse-drawn carriage in the street (other website) the other day, I think I saw (barely visible) a horse standing with its horse-drawn carriage parking along the sidewalk in the street (above the white building’s roof with a black dot in the center of the horse-drawn carriage).
Have you tried to look at it and found it yet?
The 1838 Parisian Everyday Life in that photo, the shoe shine boy would have to come out to work on the street all day (if he would not have to go to school) and earns a little money – few French coins (probably less than 5 Centimes or 5 cents per customer during that period) everyday in order to support his poor family. The shoe shine boy and his family probably lived in the white apartment building just like the peering boy in the window who lived there while the other three people – a man, a woman and a baby that are sitting on a bench there could be a middle-class family and the other person who could get shoe shined from the shine shoe boy could be a wealthy man.
The 1838 Daguerre photo is an interesting photo with human figures! I wish I could get the Daguerre photo reproduction frame(the bigger size just like the one above) from his original photo and hang on the wall in my office or home.
Cleo-
I saw an actual little boy pulling the curtain aside and peering out the 3rd window floor in the white building because he had a short hair with his visible ears (somewhat blurry when his face with ears moved slightly), eyes and mouth.
Have you seen (barely visible) or find a horse standing with its horse-drawn carriage parking along the sidewalk in the street (above the white building’s roof with a black dot in the center of the horse-drawn carriage) in the photo? I could barely see it there.
Phil Amend-
I would have said “no telephones or no cell phones in the second paragraph above.
Phil Amend-
I forgot to add no social security, no health insurance, etc. for people there during that period in the second paragraph. We can imagine we would continue working until we have time to stop working when we are older enough and then we would ask our adult children to support us with their money, food, etc.
@James – great writing – it really sets the mood for living in that time. I do wonder if this was considered a “wealthier” neighborhood back then. Perhaps if it was, there might have been a greater emphasis on education in that area.
I think you have a good point about the likelihood of keeping pets around back then.
Also, I think some people feel that the “shoe shining person” is somehow demeaning. In my opinion, it is a job and we all have to make a living. I personally do not look down upon someone in that position as we all have to make ends meet somehow.
That being said, I tend to believe it is a water pump now as I think that I can make out buckets at the person’s feet.
As for the image, I haven’t taken a look again this weekend as I’ve been fairly swamped with work and writing. I will take a look later.
I believe that there is a boy, or man, to the left of the big white building. There is a sign at the corner of the building and what appears to possibly be stairs along side the building. The person looks as though they may be on the 3rd step and they have their head hung down (they are facing the building or even possibly an alley? where there might be conversing with a hidden person). I also noticed that if you were to continue up the stairs there seems to be a very visible leg and a faint image of the rest of the body of someone under the awning. I would be interested in your comments to my observations.
the more I look that the image of that person, it seems as though a rope is thrown over his shoulder and attached to a water bucket.
….my apologies, to the LEFT of the big white building.
oh no, it is to the RIGHT……
Cleo-
I think the shoeshine boy could be behind the water pump there and would use it for cleaning customers’ shoes or boots or something like that along with his small cart (shoeshine supplies). It looks like he was about to get his customer’s boots shoeshined. There were numerous shoeshine boys in dark clothes in city streets like this photo in the 19th century to earn money to support their families.
Just to clarify: It is in a CORRECTLY ORIENTED photo (with Boulevard du Temple running to the RIGHT of the white building) that the woman’s face is visible in the lower-right-hand-corner of the small 3rd window down from the top of the 1st column of windows. However, if you are looking at the horizontally-reversed image (as in the colorized versions above), then she would be found in the lower-left-hand-corner of the small 3rd window down from the top of the 2nd column of windows.
I have been looking at this Daguerre black and white photograph and studying persons and other things at the street corner. I believe that there is a shoeshine boy with a cap behind a small denuded tree and a water pump (possibly) and a small cart with two wheels that are all in several different positions closely together next to a man who is about to get shoeshined by a shoeshine boy.
About the horse standing with its horse-drawn carriage parking along the sidewalk in the street that could be barely visible, try to look at it for a minute or more until you find it: It is located at top left of the top tall black chimney on the white building’s roof, between the two trees by several buildings across the street from the other buildings above the white building – a black dot that where the horse standing with its horse-drawn carriage is located. You need to enlarge 100% image so you could look at it and find it. Please let me know if you find it.
Check out Bing map website:
Type “Place de la Republique Paris” in the search section and click to find a word “aerial” in a gray section top left of the map and scroll down to click Bird’s Eye and then you see the Place de le Republique area, including Boulevard du Temple above. Awesome! This information on the Bing website seems to be more clearly (esp. Bird’s eye) than the other online maps or some 19th Century Paris maps.
Nice work. I have enjoyed the improvements! Can you put it up without the comments to see better?
Couple of additions: the photo is a mirror image and you can tell that by the writing on the wall. I can make out a 104 RUE something. Obviously the name of a firm on top with their address below. In the original, there seems to be woman at 10:00 from the man shining his shoes. She is under the lamp post. Seems to have gone, or you cleaned it up and she was not there. I need to be careful for reading more into the photo than is there.
The time of day can be determined if you know the direction of the view. I can tell you with 99% certainty that is towards the east because of the curve of the boulevard. This means the Seine is far off to the right
If you know Paris light and the length of shadows at different seasons of the year the season will become apparent.
I’ve been staring at the water pump figure and I think I may have a version of events. I think there’s someone squatting or sitting on a bucket ‘behind’ the pump: they’ve been pumping (you’d sit down after that exertion). His friend or maybe just a passer-by has stopped to chat and has his foot on one of the buckets of pumped water while they have their conversation. Looking at the standing figure, he has his hands behind his back which looks natural in conversation. I’d almost certainly say that this isn’t a shoe-shining image.
I can imagine the second man on his haunches, shuffling the buckets around, as the standing man talks about the lovely weather or the theatre or maybe the fire that gutted the house in the middle of the photo. Fascinating…
the man by the “shoe shining water pump” may have been mr daquerre himself or an accomplice, striking a static pose for several minutes of camera exposure in order to produce a clear and definite figure outline.
What about the chatting couple on the roof(?) at the front?
http://imgur.com/bykFt
Or am I imagining things?
Maybe it helps if you look at a second picture Daguerre made at midday. It can be found at:
http://www.stanford.edu/~njenkins/archives/2007/08/traces.html, it clears up the shoe shine discussion.
Also there are at least three houses still standing, they can be visited using google street view, just read this: http://www.niepce-daguerre.com/boulevard_du_Temple_de_dag.html.
@David. Wow, I think you might have seen someone “hiding” in plain sight.
One thing I find really fascinating is how crowdsourcing these images has turned up so many unexpected results. A “normal” photograph these days probably wouldn’t turn up this much interest.
I would probably conclude without a shadow of a doubt that this is the very first photograph of people – not just a single person as initially thought.
@Rob. I wish there was a larger scan of that image!
In the beanch next to the cart, it’s very clar for me the face of a men, it’s possibe to see his eyes, nose, and beard, and a bada head.
And that’s not a water pump, it’s a boy behind a young tree (I don’t know how to cal it in engish), because there is one other picture made os this same view, and it’s very clear that there is no water pump.
And by the way, you did a really great job coirizing this picture!!
This picture is amazing. It was made just 22 years after the end of the napoeonic wars, maybe the mens in boevard could be napoenic war veterans
Very, very interesting. Quite possibly THE most interesting photograph ever, as it is SUCH a tremendously long time ago. We can’t even imagine. Think about it; at the exact time that this photo was taken, today’s modern cities like Los Angeles and San Franscisco were small, sleepy towns by the border to Mexico. Persons in this picture that were 24 years of age and up had actually lived during Napoleon and some were probably veterans.
When this picture was taken, great historical figures like Abraham Lincoln were still young. I believe Lincoln was still a lawyer at this time.
The majority of the young soldiers who would fight in the American Civil War were yet to be born.
Incredible.
Check out this link I found. Oh and by the way, since the photo was a Daguerretype, it was reversed. To keep the angle and realism up to date, you should move it the other way round.
Here’s the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/emanistan/4298578797/
Will check later in the year when over in Paris again. But isn’t there a water trough along the bvd. near place de la République? It is where the pavement rises above the road and passes by Chez Jenny? It might be this which shows where the pump had been. Love this area from Bastille all the way up to Canal Saint Martin.
W.
The man is actually getting a shoe shine – it is not a water pump…in addition, it is technically not the first photograph by a human….the first photograph was taken ca. 1824 or 26 by Niepce.
It is incorrect to say that this was the first photo ever. It was not. The first photo that was developed and taken was by Nicephore Niepce in 1824 (View from Window at Le Gras). It was a heliograph. Daguerre came afterwards. Just clarifying as a history and photography enthusiast.
@Photo Kid: It is the first “known” photograph of “people” (multiple) which is correct.
The second picture is very helpful. Given the position of the curtains, I think that really is a small child – more than likely intrigued by what the man in the window of the building opposite is doing with that funny box! It would explain why the kid was able to stay still for so long.
I wonder if the clearly visible cart parked on the edge of the street is the same one we saw parked on the sidewalk in the more famous photo – perhaps here folded up, while it was opened for display on the sidewalk.
Another clue that hasn’t been discussed very much is that the human figures (shoeblack and customer) cast a shadow in the shape of a lowercase h, which might help determine the angle they were standing/sitting. The round protrusion from the shadow is visible in both pictures and is probably a depression in the pavement or some other marking.
And yes, that’s a sapling, not a water pump.
I was looking at the photo on the white building under the cat in the window note it looks like u can see a man looking out the 2nd storie window or it may be 2 people cant tell
haussmann???? Crétin des alpes, c’est en juin 1853 l’Empereur Napléon III lui confie la mission d’assainir et d’embellir Paris …
amazing! But, I found 3-6 more people at the (market stalls)? One man looks like he is bending on a counter, another next to him on the right, and two more behind them. I also saw some other figures.
You should reverse the photo. It’s mirrored.
The correct image : http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boulevard_du_Temple_by_Daguerre_%28unmirrored%29.jpg
Here is the spot : https://www.google.fr/maps/@48.866636,2.364711,3a,75y,178.49h,91.04t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s-L02gA2yZfWxbfmj9BPVTg!2e0!6m1!1e1
Cleo, Thank you for posting this. I came across this site from a VSauce link. I spent some time thinking about how this was a slice of history and trying to imagine how things were back when that photo was taken. It was a trip to the past and I never left my home.
I was unable to view the colorized pictures in their entirety, I don’t know if it was my browser (Chrome or IE (both up to date)) or what the problem was. Nor was I able to download the pictures. Right clicking just gave the option to DL a Link. Perhaps you could see about making the colorized and notated images more easily downloadable?
Also, on the closest building in the foreground (the building with the boy/cat in the window.) On the side of the building towards the road there appears to be some kind of skeletonized structure at the top, almost like it would support the cloth on a covered wagon. Any idea what this is? Or even guesses?
I enjoyed the work you did on this photo. Perhaps one day you can get a better scan of the original or have someone with access to some serious photo enhancement equipment take a look at it.
I really enjoyed this page and all the great comments. It kept me day dreaming for a few hours.
REHII
The man in the image is not either shoeshining or by a water pump.
The upper part of the leg is too high for him to be shoe shining
The “water pump” is nothing else but a wood pole holding a new planted tree.
In the internet you can find another Daguerre taken a few hours apart with nobody
on it and a lot of wood poles holding new planted trees. So what?!
Our imagination tends to complicate the reality that he his there standing in one leg
& stepping in something to move the least possible during the 10-15 minutes of the s exposure. In the first pole/tree a slight blur caused it look like a water pump.
So states the Count of Valverde who was there in 1838.
If you follow the cat in the window around to the back of the house, there appears to be a balcony with a woman doing laundry.
At the window under the boy in the white building.
At the floor under, at both windows you can see 4 faces. (2 at both)
At the left window it’s not as easy to see the faces but you can clearly see an eye at the left of the left window. (Under the little boy). At the window to the right of there, it is easy to see a face. (maybe 2 if you can)The face which is easiest to see is the face to the far right of the right window. (Under the little boy).
The man to the right of the left window under the little boy, You can see his clothes and everything!
Please let me know if you saw them!
If you didn’t see them, i want you to take a closer look.
AMAZING!
Sorry if i described wrong.
At the two windows under the third floor, under the little boy.
The second floor i will say.
They were probably also looking at what Daguerre were doing.
One will also never know if it was the same apartment or not.