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The best pictures as Wildlife Photographer of the Year shortlist revealed
Fascinating early photos reveal what the world looked like in the 1800s
You have to click on the link to see the other 14.
1886: The motorcar is born
By the 1880s, photography was widespread, and we start to have documentary evidence for most of the world's most important people, places and events. The technology now existed to showcase other new technologies, and this photo captures an even more world-changing piece of kit – the first automobile. The Benz Patent-Motorwagen was a three-wheeled vehicle with a combustible engine, designed by engineer Carl Benz. He unveiled and demonstrated his work in the city of Mannheim in modern-day Germany, where it hit top speeds of 10 miles per hour (16km/h). As you may have guessed, Benz's work and name became the foundation for an important modern car company.
1878: The Statue of Liberty is pictured mid-construction
No, it's not a still from The Planet of the Apes. This extraordinary image shows the Statue of Liberty's head on display in the Champs-de-Mars in Paris before it was shipped across the Atlantic to Liberty Island. Lady Liberty was fully constructed in France before being disassembled and then rebuilt on American soil, and the French showed off their handiwork at the 1878 Paris Exposition – called to celebrate France's recovery following the disastrous 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War.
1871: The Great Chicago Fire rages
Photography would eventually bring the devastation of war onto newspaper stands the world over, and it fulfilled the same role for fires, earthquakes and floods. This image shows downtown Chicago levelled almost completely by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 – probably the most infamous fire in US history. A third of the city was destroyed, with 300 people killed and more than 90,000 left homeless, while Chicago's position at the heart of America's nascent telegraphic industry meant it was an instant global news event.
1869: British royalty arrives in Hong Kong
Hong Kong became a British colony in 1841, a year before the first Opium War ended – just as photography was gearing up as a credible international medium. The earliest photos of China were daguerreotypes taken by French customs officer Jules Itier in the 1840s, but the surviving shots are of poor quality and depict limited subject matter. This 1869 image captures a much grander spectacle – the arrival of the then-Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Alfred, in Hong Kong Harbour for a rare royal visit.
1864: Victorian 'bathing machines' are photographed on Brighton Beach
International mass tourism was still a century away in the 1860s, but in the UK the Victorian seaside town was enjoying its moment in the sun. The strange-looking sheds on wheels in this picture were so-called 'bathing machines' – mobile changing rooms that protected female modesty by rolling down the beach and into the water. Queen Victoria herself owned a bathing machine at her residence on the Isle of Wight, and at their height, the 'machines' were common across Western Europe and North America.
1861: The American Civil War begins
The US Civil War was documented more diligently than any previous conflict – and is sometimes called the first properly photographed war. A far cry from Roger Fenton's staged shots of British officers staring solemnly into the distance, American snappers in the 1860s were depicting razed towns, squalid trenches and body-strewn battlefields. This c.1861 shot by Mathew Brady shows an artillery drill near Fredericksburg and is said to be the first image to capture the Union Army in action. There would be many, many more.
1858: A Napoleonic soldier poses for posterity
Photography came too late for the Napoleonic Wars (Napoleon died in exile in 1821), but they were still within living memory. In 1858 a series of portraits, probably taken in Paris, captured the faded glory of Napoleon's Grande Armee by picturing some of its last remaining veterans in full military dress. This swaggering fellow is Quartermaster Fabry of the 1st Hussars, proudly sporting his Saint Helena Medal – awarded in 1857 to all surviving servicemen from Napoleon's campaigns.
1858: Sydney enjoys a pioneering panorama
Australia's first ever photo was a daguerreotype portrait taken in the mid-1840s, but this 1858 landscape shot was much more groundbreaking. It's one of 12 images that form a full panorama of the burgeoning Sydney skyline, taken by Swedish-born snapper Olaf William Blackwood by carefully moving his camera in a 360-degree rotation. Captured from the tower of Government House, a stone's throw from where the Sydney Opera House now stands, the images show three-masted ships anchored in Sydney Harbour backed by the sprawling cityscape of the north shore. At this time British convicts were still being shipped to Australia by the boatload, and would be for another decade.
You have to click on the link to see the other 14.
1886: The motorcar is born
By the 1880s, photography was widespread, and we start to have documentary evidence for most of the world's most important people, places and events. The technology now existed to showcase other new technologies, and this photo captures an even more world-changing piece of kit – the first automobile. The Benz Patent-Motorwagen was a three-wheeled vehicle with a combustible engine, designed by engineer Carl Benz. He unveiled and demonstrated his work in the city of Mannheim in modern-day Germany, where it hit top speeds of 10 miles per hour (16km/h). As you may have guessed, Benz's work and name became the foundation for an important modern car company.
1878: The Statue of Liberty is pictured mid-construction
No, it's not a still from The Planet of the Apes. This extraordinary image shows the Statue of Liberty's head on display in the Champs-de-Mars in Paris before it was shipped across the Atlantic to Liberty Island. Lady Liberty was fully constructed in France before being disassembled and then rebuilt on American soil, and the French showed off their handiwork at the 1878 Paris Exposition – called to celebrate France's recovery following the disastrous 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War.
1871: The Great Chicago Fire rages
Photography would eventually bring the devastation of war onto newspaper stands the world over, and it fulfilled the same role for fires, earthquakes and floods. This image shows downtown Chicago levelled almost completely by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 – probably the most infamous fire in US history. A third of the city was destroyed, with 300 people killed and more than 90,000 left homeless, while Chicago's position at the heart of America's nascent telegraphic industry meant it was an instant global news event.
1869: British royalty arrives in Hong Kong
Hong Kong became a British colony in 1841, a year before the first Opium War ended – just as photography was gearing up as a credible international medium. The earliest photos of China were daguerreotypes taken by French customs officer Jules Itier in the 1840s, but the surviving shots are of poor quality and depict limited subject matter. This 1869 image captures a much grander spectacle – the arrival of the then-Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Alfred, in Hong Kong Harbour for a rare royal visit.
1864: Victorian 'bathing machines' are photographed on Brighton Beach
International mass tourism was still a century away in the 1860s, but in the UK the Victorian seaside town was enjoying its moment in the sun. The strange-looking sheds on wheels in this picture were so-called 'bathing machines' – mobile changing rooms that protected female modesty by rolling down the beach and into the water. Queen Victoria herself owned a bathing machine at her residence on the Isle of Wight, and at their height, the 'machines' were common across Western Europe and North America.
1861: The American Civil War begins
The US Civil War was documented more diligently than any previous conflict – and is sometimes called the first properly photographed war. A far cry from Roger Fenton's staged shots of British officers staring solemnly into the distance, American snappers in the 1860s were depicting razed towns, squalid trenches and body-strewn battlefields. This c.1861 shot by Mathew Brady shows an artillery drill near Fredericksburg and is said to be the first image to capture the Union Army in action. There would be many, many more.
1858: A Napoleonic soldier poses for posterity
Photography came too late for the Napoleonic Wars (Napoleon died in exile in 1821), but they were still within living memory. In 1858 a series of portraits, probably taken in Paris, captured the faded glory of Napoleon's Grande Armee by picturing some of its last remaining veterans in full military dress. This swaggering fellow is Quartermaster Fabry of the 1st Hussars, proudly sporting his Saint Helena Medal – awarded in 1857 to all surviving servicemen from Napoleon's campaigns.
1858: Sydney enjoys a pioneering panorama
Australia's first ever photo was a daguerreotype portrait taken in the mid-1840s, but this 1858 landscape shot was much more groundbreaking. It's one of 12 images that form a full panorama of the burgeoning Sydney skyline, taken by Swedish-born snapper Olaf William Blackwood by carefully moving his camera in a 360-degree rotation. Captured from the tower of Government House, a stone's throw from where the Sydney Opera House now stands, the images show three-masted ships anchored in Sydney Harbour backed by the sprawling cityscape of the north shore. At this time British convicts were still being shipped to Australia by the boatload, and would be for another decade.
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1855: The Crimean War brings the world's first 'war photography'
Many of Fenton's photos are posed pictures of British soldiers – photography still struggled with too much movement – including this group from the 71st Highlanders. On the left stands a Colour Sergeant wearing full marching order and holding a long rifle, observed by three other officers resplendent in tartan with swords at the ready. The large majority of British casualties from the war died not from gunfire but disease, and Fenton's photos – along with the advent of the telegraph – helped bring their stories to the public back home.
1852: Roger Fenton takes early photos of Moscow
Taken as part of a series by travelling British photographer Roger Fenton, this photo of Moscow is one of the earliest surviving images of imperial Russia in its pomp. At this time, the Russian Empire was ruled by the autocratic Tsar Nicholas I, and it is estimated that around 40% of the population still lived as serfs – peasants bought and sold with stretches of land. The Moskva River dominates this picture, with the domes of St Basil's Cathedral and the spires of the Kremlin visible on the right-hand bank. The very next year, the Crimean War would see Russia clash with Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire, and Fenton would make his name documenting the disastrous conflict.
1852: The California Gold Rush takes off
The United States is young enough that we have photographic evidence for most of its history – including the Civil War, the construction of the railways and the California Gold Rush. This scramble for gold – and instant fame and fortune – was kickstarted in 1848 when the precious metal was unearthed in the Sierra Nevada foothills in the now aptly-named El Dorado County. Around 300,000 migrants descended on the region from home and abroad, devastating Indigenous communities and paving the way for Californian statehood. This 1852 photo shows white and Chinese miners at a sluice box in Auburn Ravine, near modern-day Sacramento.
1848: Barricades are pictured in eastern Paris
1848 was known as 'the year of revolutions', as a wave of mass protest swept Europe, from Paris to Palermo. French king Louis Philippe was forced to abdicate in February, but in June a workers' revolt in the Parisian suburbs met with less success. This photo shows the last stand of the rebels – a barricaded street in eastern Paris that would be attacked and overrun by the army the following day. Taken by Charles-Francois Thibault, some claim that it's the world's first photojournalism, as it was published as an engraving by the newspaper L'Illustration.
1843: US President John Quincy Adams poses for the camera
This austere daguerreotype of American statesman John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States and son of founding father John Adams, is the earliest surviving image of a US president, snapped in a studio in Washington DC 14 years after the end of his time in office. It might not, however, be the oldest photo of a US president ever taken – that honour probably belongs to President William Henry Harrison, who was reportedly photographed on his inauguration day two years earlier. Both image and president were ill-fated: the picture has long been lost to time and Harrison became the shortest-serving president in history when he died on his 32nd day in office.
1839: The earliest known photograph of London
Daguerreotype technology was announced publicly at the French Academy of Sciences in 1839, and within a year its proponents had hopped both the Channel and the Atlantic to bring the process to the English-speaking world. This photo was taken by Monsieur de St Croix as part of a public demonstration in London and focuses on the statue of a mounted Charles I in Charing Cross, the point from which all distances to and from the capital are measured. If you look closely you can make out the ghostly forms of Londoners who stayed still just long enough to leave a murky imprint, preserved forever as dustings of light.
1838: A person is photographed for the first time
If taken on a modern smartphone, this photo would depict a bustling Paris street full of carts and people. But the image is an early 'daguerreotype', a complex photographic method pioneered by Louis Daguerre that involved silver-plated copper, hot mercury and sodium thiosulphate, and required exposure times between three and 15 minutes. The pavements appear empty because the process could not capture movement, but the photo is still thought to be the first to preserve people for posterity. Two of the street's occupants stayed still enough to appear in the finished version – a shoe-shiner and his client visible in the bottom left, totally unaware of their unique place in history.
Life through a lens
Thanks to the invention of photography, the 19th century is the earliest point in history that we can see as it actually was. Steadily less blurry images tell a story of industrialisation and modernisation but also of colonisation, capturing images of the people and places that laid the groundwork for the modern world. From the first photos ever taken to celebrated snapshots of some of history's most important moments, here we track how early photography developed – and then helped develop the world.
Devastating natural disasters, brutal war zones and the view from a Parisian window – click through this gallery to see what the world looked like in the 1800s...
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/travel/news/fascinating-early-photos-reveal-what-the-world-looked-like-in-the-1800s/ss-AA1swuRW?ocid=msedgntp&pc=NMTS&cvid=0e8a3631b7d24a98b64810da12c60f2a&ei=202#image=27
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