The story of how French photographers Vernet and Goupil-Fesquet demonstrated the daguerreotype in Malta in 1839 — taking the first photograph ever captured on Maltese soil. An early daguerreotype from the voyage through the Mediterranean, c. 1839–1840.
Their voyage had started in Marseille in October 1839, passing through Malta, the island of Syros, Santorini, Crete, Smyrna, Egypt, the Holy Land, Syria, and Constantinople. Gaspard-Pierre-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière (1798–1865), who took the first photographs of the Acropolis of Athens and the pyramids of Egypt, joined them on this voyage.
During the trip, Vernet and Goupil-Fesquet produced many daguerreotypes of the places they visited, using the new photographic technique that had just appeared. Louis Daguerre (1787–1851) had perfected the scientific process of photography in France and made it public in March 1839.
Vernet (1789–1865) and Goupil-Fesquet took advantage of the quarantine in Lazzaretto in Malta to invite some guests and show them the new and surprising photographic process. They invited the Governor, Sir Henry Bouverie, other artists and distinguished guests, including the French Consul, to witness a practical demonstration of the new art in the Lazzaretto.
The Maltese papers noted that the experiment resulting in the first photograph shot in Malta was "perfectly successful" — Il Portafoglio Maltese, 16 March 1840. These French pioneer photographers left Malta on March 29, heading for Rome. In 1842, they published a number of daguerreotypes produced in the East under the title "Les Excursions Daguerriennes."