The history of pet photography goes back quite a bit further than most people think.
The history of pet photography goes back quite a bit further than the founding of icanhas.cheezburger.com.
The picture at right has long been accepted as the oldest photograph to show a human being. Taken in Paris in 1838 by Louis Daguerre, the scene captures a man having his shoes shined in the lower-left portion.
But Amanda Uren notes on mashable.com that modern researchers believe they've also located a child and a dog on the opposite side of the street. They have not yet been able to determine if the dog was leashed or being properly curbed ... yet.
Cats weren't too far behind. Cyriaque Lamar states on i09.com that "the progenitor of shameless cat pictures was probably English photographer Harry Pointer (1822-1889), who snapped approximately 200 photos of his perplexed, albeit jovial, Brighton Cats. Pointer began his career shooting naturalistic photos of cats, but he realized in the 1870s that coaxing felines into ludicrous poses was an exercise in delicious absurdity."
"Pointer often arranged his cats in unusual poses that mimicked human activities -- a cat riding a tricycle, cats roller-skating and even a cat taking a photograph. Pointer increased the commercial potential of his cat pictures by adding a written greeting such as 'A Happy New Year' or 'Very many happy returns of the day.'"
Had the internet existed in Pointer's day, he would've been a very wealthy man.
Here's a gallery of photographs of animals in a slightly different situation -- they need homes. More adoptable pets can be viewed here and here.
Greg Hatala may be reached at ghatala@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregHatala. Find The Star-Ledger on Facebook.