I’m back from Montreal and will post about the trip as soon as possible, with photos to follow once I’ve had a chance to organize and cull the thousand or so that I took. Since I’m swamped getting back in to the normal grind today, take a look at this hauntingly beautiful image – the first ever taken of a human being. The photo is a Daguerreotype of Paris’ Boulevard du Temple, taken in 1838. It actually shows what would have been a busy street packed with traffic, but the 10 minute-long exposure didn’t capture anything that moved. The person (in the lower left) getting his shoes shined stood still long enough to be imaged.

Click the image for a high-res version.