Victorian Photo Identified as Oldest Known Mirror Selfie

A photograph taken by Mia Jackson in the late 1850s is now recognized as the earliest known image in which a camera is intentionally directed at its subject via a mirror. Jackson was the younger sister of pioneering photographer Julia Margaret Cameron and the grandmother of Virginia Woolf. The image predates the modern concept of the selfie, yet it employs the same mirror-based technique. While it is not the first painted self-portrait, it stands as the oldest surviving photographic example of this deliberate mirror self-portraiture. The discovery was reported by Artnet, highlighting the Victorian era's engagement with self-representation through emerging photographic technology. The photograph's existence underscores the deep historical roots of a practice often considered a product of the digital age. No further details about the image's current location or exhibition status were provided in the source.