# Famous or notable people after 1840 who are not in photographs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 16, 2015, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-after-1840-who-are-not-in-photographs/737675 "2015-11-16T07:07:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-after-1840-who-are-not-in-photographs/737675/41 "2015-11-22T10:06:33Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > So what? Isadora Duncan and Nijinsky were famous dancers. Their fame is baseupon movement. Technology existed to capture said movement, but wasn’t used. (Or at least only a few seconds.) Not recording them is something of a loss to history. > > Orwell fame is not based on moving, or for his voice. It’s no huge loss that they weren’t recorded. I pointed out this lack of film & voice recording of Orwell purely as a curiosity. Though it now looks as if a small film record of him has been found recently. Still, as someone who worked for the BBC it’s an interesting factoid that his famously strained voice has not been recorded. ---
**Author:** ![botsgotme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@botsgotme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/botsgotme)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-after-1840-who-are-not-in-photographs/737675/42 "2015-11-22T14:41:45Z")
Howard Hughes was almost never photographed, after about 1948. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2015, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-after-1840-who-are-not-in-photographs/737675/43 "2015-11-22T16:24:39Z")
I bet the guy who played The Invisible Man in the British TV series has never been photographed. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-after-1840-who-are-not-in-photographs/737675/44 "2015-11-23T01:37:28Z")
Most women of Saudi Arabia, full-face that is. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-after-1840-who-are-not-in-photographs/737675/45 "2015-11-23T01:54:31Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > Most women of Saudi Arabia, full-face that is. Which of them were famous or notable? ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-after-1840-who-are-not-in-photographs/737675/46 "2015-11-23T02:22:19Z")
Royalty and aristocracy? The only one I’ve seen full-faced in pictures is Mai Yamani. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-after-1840-who-are-not-in-photographs/737675/47 "2016-10-17T10:57:49Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Bill Watterson (_Calvin and Hobbes_) is remarkably camera-shy; there are only a few photos of him out on the web. The same might be said of _The Far Side_’s Gary Larson. I know of only a couple photographic portraits, plus a [1986 interview on _20/20_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57wcedtGpc8). ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-after-1840-who-are-not-in-photographs/737675/48 "2016-10-17T13:37:32Z")
German-American author B. Traven. There are one or two photos of the person he is thought to be, but none of a person who professed to be Traven. ---
**Author:** ![xnylder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bbce88/32.png) [@xnylder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xnylder)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-after-1840-who-are-not-in-photographs/737675/49 "2016-10-17T15:21:39Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > Harry Winston–a jeweler who once owned the Hope Diamond. I realized this thread’s been resurrected, but right now there’s a photo of Harry Winston right on his Wikipedia page: [Harry Winston - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Winston) ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-after-1840-who-are-not-in-photographs/737675/50 "2016-10-17T15:44:18Z")
Has anyone ever seen a picture of Buckethead? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-after-1840-who-are-not-in-photographs/737675/51 "2016-10-17T17:49:19Z")
… the guitarist? ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-after-1840-who-are-not-in-photographs/737675/52 "2016-10-17T18:19:00Z")
William Buelow Gould, the convict-artist who died in Tasmania in 1853, was apparently never photographed. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-after-1840-who-are-not-in-photographs/737675/53 "2016-10-17T18:19:45Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > There are plenty of photographs of the last emperor of China, and at least one of his immediate predecessor (reigned 1875-1908), but as far as I can tell there are no photographs of the three previous emperors: > > The Daoguang Emperor (reigned 1820-1850) > The Xianfeng Emperor (1850-1861) > The Tongzhi Emperor (1861-1875) As with post which named Japanese figures, the standard of universal photography of notable figures would seem to have to be applied later in the Far East, though in fairness OP did say ‘developed world’ albeit a somewhat anachronistic (now’s not 1840’s) term. There are no photographs of St Andrew Kim Dae-geon (first Korean Catholic priest, martyred in 1846) or AFAIK any of the other Korean martyrs, important people to Korean Catholics, notable to all Catholics. Most died well before photography but others as late as the 1880’s. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2016, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-after-1840-who-are-not-in-photographs/737675/54 "2016-10-18T01:38:20Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Bill Watterson (_Calvin and Hobbes_) is remarkably camera-shy; there are only a few photos of him out on the web. he looks exactly like the dad in the strip except he grew out a beard because some fans noticed it too in the one picture of him ive ever seen But a lot of people thought that if you took a picture it captured your soul in the picture… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-or-notable-people-after-1840-who-are-not-in-photographs/737675.md?page=2)