When was the first photograph of a person taken?

In 1838, Louis Daguerre captured a view of a busy Paris boulevard that, because of its several-minute exposure, showed the street almost empty of the moving traffic and pedestrians. One figure, however, stood still long enough to be recorded: a man having his boots polished, making him the first human ever to appear in a photograph. The long exposure times of early photography meant only stationary subjects could be captured, which is why early portraits required people to sit perfectly still.