From the 1840s.

The New Tork Times has an interesting piece on early Daguerrotypes taken by the Frenchman Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey (1804-1892).

For some bizarre reason they have chosen to leave the awful originals un-retouched in their article, meaning that some perverted sense of authenticity prevails over the common sense one of actually letting the viewer see the pictures in all their glory. Given that every single image ever taken has been subject to some sort of manipulation – exposure, choice of gear, chemicals used, choice of sensor, viewpoint, etc. – why not show images in their best possible light? Some in the article are truly ghastly in their rendering.

A few seconds in LR yields this very decent result of Constantinople in 1843. Click the image for the truly awful ‘original’, whatever that means:

Click the image.

Artistic/curatorial pretense notwithstanding, it’s an interesting piece well worth a read.