If you think filling your phone gallery with pet photos is a modern thing, you’ll be surprised to see the first pet photos in history, taken in the 1830s.
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The amazing shots were taken by photography pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot, who changed everything when he invented the negative-positive photographic process in 1833. He often reproduced different types of images as he advanced his photographic process.
“How delightful it would be if it were possible to cause these natural images to imprint themselves durably and remain fixed on the paper! And why should it not be possible? I asked myself,” wrote the Englishman in the early 1830s in his diary.
And he proved it was possible. One of his first photographic reproductions was creating a “calotype” (also known as “talbotype”) of a detailed drawing of a cat, a process that was documented by the scientist in 1841 at the Royal Society in London.
“It is believed that this cute kitten is a copy of ‘A Favourite Cat’ by J.M. Burbank, an artist who exhibited animal photos in Britain during the 1830s,” explained Ruth Quinn, curator of photography and photographic technology at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, England.
After refining his skills, Talbot’s photographic technique was introduced to society in the 1840s, albeit in a limited number of studios. These studios, reserved for the cultural elite, mainly photographed people on photographic paper. However, one customer, the famous author Mary Mitford, brought her dog to her portrait session in 1847.
Mitford insisted that the studio photographer take a photo of her dog. The photographer was skeptical that the dog could sit still long enough, after all, these early photos took a few minutes to expose. However, the adorable little dog remained perfectly still.
However, Louis Daguerre also worked on the photographic process in the 1830s, and the eponymous “daguerreotype” was announced in France in 1839. Due to the Frenchman’s advancements, Mitford’s adorable dog was not the first living animal captured in a photo.
The first photo of an animal could be a daguerreotype of a cow from 1842. Although not a pet, this photo, 182 years old, was taken by French photographer Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey.
While photos of people nearly 200 years old intrigue people today, animal photos are timeless. Pets are always with us and are therefore the perfect subject for any photographer.
Whether developing a photographic technique like Talbot or Daguerre, making a living with art, or just trying to make people smile, it’s interesting to note how animal photos have been an integral part of photography since its early days.
