The oldest surviving photograph, taken by French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1827, was of the view out his window. The image took several days of exposure to sunlight—with a method that used an entire room (called a “camera obscura”) to yield a faint impression of buildings and trees from his family’s estate in Burgundy. Photography has come a long way since then. Today we take for granted how pocket-sized smartphones can capture countless incredibly detailed images in a fraction of a second. With such speed and convenience at one’s…
