Not the most impressive at first glance, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce's photograph from the window at Le Gras, with its blurred shadow-shapes of trees and buildings, was integral to the development of modern photography.
Wikimedia Commons. Photo by Hajotthu. CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Portable Camera Obscura, 1800s. Goethe Nationalmuseum, Weimar, Germany.


















