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History of PhotographyWhat is photography

Photography, which means literally “writing with

light”, gives us the means to record and examine our day-

to-day activities and experiences. Unlike the casual glance,

which often “sees” only the major elements of a scene, a

photograph records the tiniest of details. It then allows us

time to study and understand each minute element. A

photograph preserves what memory cannot.

Early Study of Light

Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher, first described the formation of a crude optical image in about 350 B.C. He observed that when a beam of light was allowed to enter a darkened room through a small hole an image was formed. By holding a piece of paper six inches or so from the opening he was able to capture the image. Though blurred and upside down the image was recognizable.

Leonardo DaVinci, early in the sixteenth century, diagrammed in his famous Notebooks the workings of a camera, complete with instructions on how to use it.

The phenomenon that Aristotle described and DaVinci

illustrated became known as the camera obscura. This term,

meaning “dark room”, was introduced by the Italians, whose

painters were among the first to make practical use of

Aristotle’s discovery. In the early 1500s Italian painters used

the camera obscura to improve proportion and perspective in

their paintings.

During the next two hundred years many improvements were

made in the basic camera obscura. A glass lens that greatly

sharpened the image eventually replaced the somple opening,

the camera was made smaller and more portable, and mirrors

were added so that the image was projected in an upright

position.

During the 1700s, several people were experimenting with chemicals that were sensitive to light. The biggest challenge facing photographers was to find a fixing agent that would make the images permanent.

Julia Margaret Cameron

Cameron, one of the most remarkable amateur photographers of all time, started work in the 1860s on what she considered a “divine art”. In her photographs she attempted to record “the greatness of the inner as well as the features of the outer man.” She pioneered in the use of close-up techniques, large plates, and unusual lighting. She used an enormous lens and demanded that her subjects sit frozen for exposures lasting five to seven minutes. Her portrait subjects included the great, and the not so great of the period.

George Eastman

Though there are several others who contributed to the progress of modern photography along our history of photography timeline, the next big contribution was made by George Eastman. He began as an amateur photographer in 1877. Within twenty years he controlled the largest photographic manufacturing company in the world. Can you venture a guess at the company’s name? Introduced in 1888, the Kodak No.1, Eastman’s simple box camera was the first camera to use roll film instead of plates or sheets.

The camera appealed to the masses of amateur photographers because it was small (6 ½ inches x 3 ½ inches x 3 ½ inches) and simple to operate. The advertising slogan “You press the button, we do the rest” indicated that anyone who could press the button could get a good picture. Eastman chose the name Kodak because the word mimicked the sound the shutter made and was easily pronounced throughout the world.

The camera came loaded with enough

film for one hundred pictures and cost

twenty-five dollars. When the one

hundred pictures had been taken, the

photographer mailed the camera to the

Eastman plant in Rochester , NY. The film

was then processed, prints were made,

the camera was reloaded with film, and

the pictures and camera were returned to

the owner. Total cost for the prints and

new film was ten dollars.

In the 1890s, following on the heels of Kodak, a host ofmanufacturers attempted to complete in the vast amateurphotography marketplace. The folding bellows camera, the twin-lens reflex camera, and the “nodark” – a camerathat processed itsown film- appealed to beginners throughout the world. Smallcameras became even more popular with Dr. Paul Rudolph’sinvention of a precision lens – the Zeiss Tessar.

Harold Edgerton’s electronic flash ushered photography into an era of ultra-high speed, with shutter exposures of less than 1/50,000of a second. Edgerton’s photographs have shown us a drop of milk hitting a plate, a bullet passing through a light bulb, and a hummingbird resting on air.

After World War II, amateur photography experienced another boom period. Renewed interest was in large part due to the advent of the Kodak Brownie instamatic cameras and the 1947 invention of the Polaroid Land Camera (a camera that bore the name of it’s inventor, Edwin Land). The revolutionary new Polaroid produced a positive print in sixty seconds, because both the negative and the positive images were developed simultaneously. Despite harsh critics who said the Polaroid could not possibly last, it has endured to become a photographic mainstay among amateurs, as well as being used by many professionals in many different media related fields. In 2008 Polaroid stopped production of it’s instant photography line, but in 2009, back by popular demand, the company announced that Polaroid would soon be available once again.

Finally now we’re use selfie photography