It’s always challenging to go back in time, but art history pinpoints Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, a French inventor, as the first photographer. In 1826 or 1827, Niépce produced an image called "View from the Window at Le Gras," using a process known as heliography, which involved capturing the image onto a pewter plate coated with bitumen. This image is considered one of the earliest surviving photographs. So, while Niépce is not the first photographer in the broad sense, he made significant contributions to the field.

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce produced the "View from the Window at Le Gras" using a process he developed called heliography.

By Joseph Nicéphore Niépce - Rebecca A. Moss, Coordinator of Visual Resources and Digital Content Library, via email. College of Liberal Arts Office of Information Technology, University of Minnesota. http://www.dcl.umn.edu, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=107219