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World's First PhotographCenturies of advances in chemistry and optics, including the invention of the camera obscura, set the stage for the world’s first photograph. In 1826, French scientist Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, took that photograph, titled View from the Window at Le Gras, at his family’s country home. Niépce produced his photo—a view of a courtyard and outbuildings seen from the house’s upstairs window—by exposing a bitumen-coated plate in a camera obscura for several hours on his windowsill.  
Photograph by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce

Milestones in Photography

See famous photography milestone pictures (such as the first photo, the first color photo, and the first photo of movement) in this photo gallery, from National Geographic.