In 1839 the year that Photography was invented, Pierre-Gustave-Gaspard Joly de Lotbinière arrived in Athens on the first stop of his trip to the Middle East and took some photos of the Acropolis. These photos are the very first photos of the Acropolis, the first pictures taken in Greece and everything shows that they are the first travel pictures ever taken by the first “travel photographer”.

Athens first photos October 1839

Unfortunately, none of the 92 original photos taken by Pierre-Gustave have been preserved from his trip to Greece, Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Turkey.

Athens first photos October 1839

The only ones that have survived and we know of nowadays are those which were printed in two books  ‘Excursions daguerriennes : vues et monuments les plus remarquables de globe – Daguerreotype Excursions: the world’s most spectacular views and monuments’ in which we can see some photos of the Acropolis and in the ‘Panorama d’Égypte et de Nubie avec un Portrait de Mèhemet-Ali et un text orné de vignettes – Panorama of Egypt and Nubia with a portrait of Mèhemet-Ali and a text illustrated with vignettes’  in which we can see some photos from Egypt.