Historic photograph to receive memorial in Paris
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Three Swedish filmmakers, Maximilien Van Aertryck, Axel Danielson, and Kalle Boman, initiated the installation of a memorial in Paris to commemorate Louis Daguerre’s “Boulevard du Temple” from 1838.
Daguerre, a French inventor and artist, created what is believed to be the world’s first documentary photograph of people with this image. He built upon the earlier work of Nicéphore Niépce, reducing exposure times from hours to roughly ten minutes.
While most of Daguerre’s test plates showed an empty street due to long exposure times, one plate captured two figures, a man getting his shoes shined and the bootblack, who remained still long enough to appear in the photograph. The filmmakers located the precise spot where Daguerre took the picture through 3D scanning and archival research.
The memorial, a bronze plaque titled “an unforeseen detail,” will be placed on Place de la République in France as part of the country’s celebration of the 200th anniversary of photography. Van Aertryck, Danielson, and Boman also created a 2023 documentary about the history of the camera, finding Daguerre's image central to their work.
