First hoax photograph

The first hoax photograph was "Self-Portrait as a Drowned Man" (1840) by Hippolyte Bayard (France). He shows himself slumped to one side in an image he created as an act of protest for never receiving what he believed was his rightful credit for inventing photography. Instead the process was attributed to Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre (France) and William Henry Fox Talbot (England).

Bayard was said to have been persuaded by a mutual friend of Daguerre to postpone the announcement of his findings to the French Academy of Sciences until a year after Daguerre, who made his announcement on 7 January 1839. Bayard included a "suicide note" on the satirical photo: "...The Government, which has been only too generous to Monsieur Daguerre, has said it can do nothing for Monsieur Bayard and the poor wretch has drowned himself. Oh the vagaries of human life...! ... Ladies and gentlemen, you’d better pass along for fear of offending your sense of smell, for as you can observe, the face and hands of the gentleman are beginning to decay.”