Bogota's first photograph from 1842 heads to Paris auction

The auction house Christie's will sell the first surviving photograph of Bogota, Colombia, in Paris during a three-day auction event in November 2026.

The piece, a daguerreotype titled Rue de l’Observatoire à Bogota, depicts a street in the Colombian capital during the 1840s. It was captured by Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros, a French diplomat and photographer who arrived in the Republic of New Granada in the late 1830s.

The image shows a nearly empty street lined with buildings against a backdrop of the Andes mountains. While the street appears deserted, the lack of people resulted from the technical limitations of the era. Gros required an exposure time of 47 seconds, which caused moving pedestrians to disappear from the final image while stationary structures remained. The National Museum of Colombia recognizes this metal plate as the oldest surviving photograph of the city.

It serves as a rare visual record of the capital before it became a major metropolis. Gros was among the first to experiment with the daguerreotype technology in Colombia shortly after its international debut in 1839. He also produced other historical images, such as a daguerreotype of the Bogota Cathedral, in the same year. The photograph is part of a collection of 363 historical images formerly owned by French journalist and collector Roger Therond.

It was previously featured in several international exhibitions in Paris before entering the auction. The sale occurs as the world marks the 200th anniversary of the invention of photography.