Micro-post #133: Hippolyte Bayard's "Self Portrait of a Drowned Man" (1840)

Self Portrait of a Drowned Man, Hippolyte Bayard (1840)

I've been flipping through some books about the history of photography and this photo was one of the more striking examples of how strange early photos actually were. It's a considerably famous work not just because it's the first staged photograph ever taken but also because it's one of photography's funniest and pettiest "fuck you" moments. The overall story is that Bayard got robbed of his credit in innovating the field due to a friend of "father of photography" Louis Daguerre, so he took this photo and wrote a mock suicide note to the French government complaining about Daguerre hogging all the attention. Even well into the past, things never seem all that different...