The First Selfie: Not a Social Media Phenonmenon

In a world where self-obsession is the norm, we take it for granted that one of the primary purposes of smart phones is to take selfies. Many of us have more pictures of ourselves at an arms-length distance than we do of anyone else.

Naturally, there had to be a first selfie, but when do you think that happened? Was it with the release of the first iPhone in 2007? The first phone with a camera in 1999? Perhaps it was with the first disposable camera in 1949?

Robert Cornelius: Taking the Self-Portrait to a New Level

At this rate, we’ll be guessing for quite a while, so we’ll jump straight to the answer. It was Robert Cornelius who got there first, and it was in 1839. The American chemist, silversmith, and lamp manufacturer invented the selfie by taking the first self-portrait. Standing with his arms defiantly crossed, his tousled hair, and a stern glare past the camera lens, Cornelius captured what is widely considered the first selfie in photography history.

For Cornelius, this wasn’t a quick click-and-go moment. Back then, exposure times were no joke—Cornelius had to hold that brooding pose for a full minute. Try staying still that long without checking your phone. We dare you.

Now for a real mind bender… That first selfie happened a mere four years before the fax machine was invented in 1843!

When Selfies Were Serious Business

Once Cornelius showed the world it could be done, photographic self-portraits became all the rage in the early days of photography. Long before duck lips and ring lights, photographers often modeled for their own experiments. After all, who else was going to sit still for a minute or more while they tinkered with exposure times?

If we expand our definition of “selfie” to include drawings and sculptures, then humanity’s obsession with self-representation stretches back millennia. The earliest known self-portrait is a stone carving by an Egyptian sculptor named Bak, who immortalized his own image around 1365 BC. This ancient form of “tagging yourself” was clearly not without risks. Fast forward to ancient Greece, where the sculptor Phidias sneakily added his own face to the shield of Athena’s statue in the Parthenon. The result? A one-way ticket to jail for the audacious artist. Let that be a lesson—if you’re going to photobomb a goddess, at least get her permission.

And then there’s the possible oldest selfie of all—a cave painting in Vilhonneur, France, dating back thousands of years. The impressionistic lines appear to depict a face, complete with an eye, nose, and mouth. Was this humanity’s first attempt at becoming a social media influencer? We’ll never know.

Photography: A Lens Into the Past

The first-ever photograph wasn’t exactly the stuff of excitement. Taken in 1826 by French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, the grainy image depicts a view from his workshop. The exposure took hours—so long, in fact, that the sun appears to shine on both sides of the courtyard.

By the Victorian era, exposure times had been whittled down to a mere 30 seconds. But this still wasn’t fast enough to capture a smile, which is why every Victorian looks like they’re auditioning for the role of “stern family patriarch.” It’s not that they were humorless; they just didn’t want to risk looking like a blurry ghost.

Speaking of ghosts, Victorian photography took a macabre turn with post-mortem portraits. Photographers cheerfully advertised their willingness to create keepsakes of dearly departed relatives. Nothing says “family memento” like a picture of Uncle Cedric propped up one last time.

And let’s not forget the mothers hiding under cloths behind their babies in photos, keeping them still long enough for the exposure. The result? A generation of babies that appear to be supported by ominous blobs.

From Robert Cornelius to Today’s Influencers

Cornelius and his ilk paved the way for today’s selfie culture, proving that the urge to capture and share our faces is as old as art itself. So next time you scroll through your camera roll, take a moment to thank the brooding chemist with tousled hair for making it all possible. Sure, he didn’t have hashtags or a comments section, but he started something that would stand the test of time—just like his stern, unimpressed stare.

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