It’s been twenty years since Tim Berners-Lee decided to expand his relatively new tech project, the World Wide Web, into the world of digital imagery. Sometime around July 18th, though the exact date is a bit fuzzy, Mr. Berners-Lee uploaded the below image of the comedy band Les Horribles Cernettes, made up of girlfriends and secretaries of CERN scientists.
It would be the web’s first color photo.
Why this image? Why not have the Vatican archive be the first in a series of web upload milestones? Many boil it down to the simple fact that Mr. Berners-Lee was a bit of a crossdresser. Equally as interesting is the fact that the photo was edited using the very first version of Photoshop, and was saved as a GIF file, a relatively new file type that allowed for processor efficient editing of color photos.
Behold the beginning of the now ‘vintage’ GIF trend, some incredible typography, elbow length gloves, and the glory of the web’s first photo. Read more at Motherboard.
