Untitled (Portrait of a Girl) - Public domain portrait

Robert Cornelius (1809-1893) was an American pioneer in the field of photography, best known for taking one of the earliest known photographic self-portraits. Born on 1 March 1809 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he lived at a time when photography was in its infancy. In 1839, just a few months after Louis Daguerre introduced the daguerreotype, Cornelius set up a camera in the back of his father's gas lamp shop in Philadelphia. He removed the lens cap, walked into the frame and, after a long exposure lasting several minutes, replaced the lens cap. This self-portrait is one of the earliest surviving photographic portraits. The daguerreotype, named after Louis Daguerre, was the first commercially successful photographic process. It involved exposing a silver-coated copper plate to iodine vapour to create light-sensitive silver iodide on the plate. After exposure in the camera, the plate was developed with mercury vapour and fixed with a solution of common salt. Cornelius's self-portrait is significant not only for its historical importance as one of the earliest photographs, but also because it reflects the technical challenges of early photography, as evidenced by the long exposure time required. His pioneering work contributed to the development and popularisation of photography as an art and a science.

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