Every year my family produces a newsletter. My parents send it to…people. I don't actually know who is on that particular mailing list, but I've had a responsibility to provide a personal update or entry of some kind for most of my life. Seeing as it has already been produced, I'm gonna let my previous work work for me. This is the text of the entry I submitted for 2013:
"This year I have been especially contemplative of the concept of firsts, events that have occurred for the first time. I spent my first full year living in an apartment away from home under my own (primarily) financial support. I completed my first full year of work at BYU Radio (which you can listen to at byuradio.org). I also came across two particular firsts that were not my own, but gave me a tremendous sense of transcendence. The first confirmed recording of the voice of Alexander Graham Bell was identified by the Smithsonian. Listening to it gives me chills. (Try it for yourself) I also came across an image which is widely believed to be the first photographic portrait ever taken (which was, incidentally, a self-portrait, and the OED word of the year is "selfie"). With all that in mind, I wish all readers of this a great many firsts in the coming year."
I also included a copy of the picture:
There is something very fascinating to me about this picture. This was the first time (probably) that a person saw a scientifically true image of himself. There's none of the reversal and inversion that comes from looking in a mirror, and this image isn't controlled by what an artist saw and chose to depict. This is science and nature at work together.
Robert Cornelius, the man pictured, was a silversmith of some repute who got involved in the early days of photography. This would have been back when it had a lot to do with chemical processes and silver nitrate (hence the involvement of a man skilled at working with silver) and exposure and stuff that I don't really understand. To my knowledge, which may very well be faulty, the procedure was the treat the silver with a chemical mixture and exposure to light would cause some kind of reaction that would result in an image. Chemical interactions and light combined to show this man his own image in a what that he, nor anyone else, had ever seen before. What a fantastic experience that must have been!
I think he also looks like a pretty cool dude. Collar popped a little. Side-burns. Hair just messy enough to make him look like the kind of guy who was more interested in learning something from this photography stuff than how he might appear in the image. Altogether, not too shabby, Mr. Cornelius. Not too shabby, at all...
