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Cailyn Spencer CAS 137H Dr. Freymiller 3 December 2013 History in a Picture Photography allows us to capture the moment. However, photography has also had its own moments that have changed the world. Since its beginnings in the early 1800s until today, photography has helped shape the world and helped us document our lives. It has evolved and grown immensely and has become part of everyday society. How, though, did photography become such an important part of our culture? The process was slow, but we see a gradual shift from its very beginnings to photography in the world we know today. Think about how much photography impacts our lives, from family photos to magazine advertisements, it is everywhere. One may be surprised that photography has started from such humble beginnings. The Beginnings It was the shot that changed the world. In June or July of 1826, Nicphore Nipce successfully took the first photograph in Paris, France (Matthews). It depicted a view from the window at Le Gras and utilized what he called Camera Obscura (Tolmachev). The image took about eight hours to process and resulted in a poor quality shot due to the shifting of the sun over the eight hour span (Matthews). However, mediocre or not, this photo had the capability to change the way that we viewed our world. After successfully capturing and preserving the image, Nipce was able to initiate a shift in society. Instead of relying on paintings, which could be subjective to the attitude and memory of the artist, one could now capture the pureness of an image through the use of a photograph. Although during the early stages of photography the

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images were blurred and the technology was not readily available, photography could help society to begin to archive the era in imagesnot just through paintings and words. Nipce along with Louis Daguerre worked on photography experiments in order to improve the quality of their work. It was not until after Nipces death (1833) that the first camera came to be. Named the Giroux Daguerreotype Camera, it used the idea of a sliding box principle with mirrors which projected onto a metal plate in order to create a picture (Lothrop). On August 19, 1839, Louis Daguerres photographic process was disclosed to the general public in the local paper. He agreed to explain his secret to the community and permit its free use (Lothrop). What this meant to society was that photography could begin a gradual movement into the everyday life of people of the time. This was the first major shift in photographic imaging from a brand new private invention to the instillation of it in the public circle. The First Advancements Over the next 50 years, the use of photography expanded immensely. In the year 1843, the first photographic advertisement was used in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Susan). This shows a shift of photography into the consumer market. In 1851, the Collodion process is invented by Frederick Scott Archer. This process requires only two or three seconds of sunlight exposure for an image to be captured (Photography: The Wet Collodion Process). The process allows for an increase in the number of photos that can be taken in a given time. In the time it used to take one photo, we could now take many shots. This increased the efficiency of photography. Continuing through the half-century, in 1865 copyrights were beginning to be issued on photographs (Susan). This symbolizes an increase in the individualism of photography and shows the increase of its usage. Also, in 1871 gelatin dry plate silver bromide processes were being implemented. Through the addition of this process, photographers did not have to develop negatives

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immediately. Instead, a photographer could take multiple shots and develop them all together at a later time due to the fact that the negatives were dry and cold hold the image for a longer period of time. All of these changes happened because society took hold of the idea of photography and let it expand. More and more people were becoming exposed to it, and with that came in increase of its usage. Photography Making Its Way into Everyday Life It was not until the late 1880s and early 1900s that the next changes in photography occurred. In the year 1889 EASTMAN American Film was introduced to the market (18781929). Transparent photographic film was being used for the first time ever. The invention was a huge shift from the use of a single-photograph metal-plate to the use of a multiplephotograph film strip. This was a notable move towards the modernization of cameras. Shortly after, in the year 1891, Kodak marketed its first daylight-loading camera, which meant that the photographer could reload the camera without the use of a darkroom (1878-1929). This implementation allowed for the camera to be much more user-friendly and allowed for more people to be able to begin utilizing photography. Finally, in the year 1900, Kodak came out with what they called the BROWNIE Camera (Lothrop). Each camera sold for a dollar and film was sold for 15 cents a roll. For the first time in its history, the hobby of photography could be financially afforded by virtually everyone (Milestones in Photography). During these years, photography made major advances towards becoming readily available to the public and made advancements towards easier usage.

A Pop of Color

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Colored photography finally make its appearance in 1907. It was invented by two brothers, Auguste and Louis Lumire. The Lumire Autochrome, or self-coloring, process was first marketed in France in 1907. It used a glass-plate negative evenly covered with a wash of potato starch dye with basic colors or red, green, and blue (1878-1929). This advancement was monumental. It allowed those who could afford it the opportunity to move away from the standard black-and-white photography and move toward photography that greater resembled the item being captured. The interesting thing, however, is that color photography was actually discovered by the famous Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell. His first color photo, an image of a tartan ribbon, was taken in 1861, well before the idea was expressed to the public (First Published Natural-Color Photo). It was not even until about 100 years later when in 1963 colored-photography went onto the consumer market and could be utilized by the everyday photographer (Milestones in Photography). This advancement paved way for the future of photography. The Digital, Modern Age of Photography The start of modern-photography came when the company Sasson snapped the first digital picture in December 1975. This image took 23 seconds to record onto a cassette tape. However, no cameras with digital imaging were released at this stage by the company. It was not until 1986 that Kodak invented the worlds first megapixel camera (Susan). As technological advances increased, so did cameras qualities and quantities. These first modernizations of the digital world have led us into the society that we live in today. Now, in the year 2013 there are cameras everywhere. From the great depths of the oceans to outer space, society tries to document the world around us. However, the most prominent form of photography can be found in our own pockets on our phones. According to National Geographic, 80 billion photos were

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taken by Americans in 2011. Out of these, 37 percent were captured by use of a cellphone. However, one of the most shocking estimates comes from their 2015 predictions. National Geographic predicts that in the year 2015, 105 billion photos will be taken by Americans. Roughly 50 plus percent will be from cellphone usage (Digital Photos Taken by Americans). The use of photos has gone past the point of images projected onto paper. Now, sites like Facebook and Instagram allow us to publish photographs in an online form. A group called Hyperallergic points out that in 2011 there were 140 billion photographs on Facebook, which is 10,000 times larger than the number of photos in the collections of the Library of Congress. The group estimates that there were 3.5 trillion photos in existence in 2011 (Vartanian). To give us an idea about how much photography has grown, Hyperallergic calculates that every 2 minutes today, we snap as many photos as the whole of humanity took in the 1800s (Vartanian). It seems as if our lives revolve around photography. The transition from the 1800s until today is truly amazing. Why Photography is Important When we look at how photography has changed, we may find ourselves asking, so what? The so what comes from when we examine how much photography has impacted our lives. It is everywhere around us. From newspapers and magazines to advertisements and family photos, photography has implemented itself deep into the modern world that we live in today. Try to image a world without it. Where would we be? Think about how much we have learned through pictures. Photography has allowed to look at the huge world through the small opening of a lens. Photography documents our lives and it defines an era. It has become a part of our society and without it, the world would be a completely different place. It is truly amazing to look back to the 1800s and see how much photography has evolved over the years. Nipces first shot

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changed the entire media future of the world. Followed by many advancements in efficiency and color, photography took major leaps into the digital era we know today. Every time a camera flashes, we see a glimpse into both the history and the future of photography.

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Works Cited "Digital Photos Taken By Americans" National Geographic Apr. 2012. Print. "First Published Natural-Color Photo." National Geographic. National Geographic, June 2007. Web. 25 Oct. 2013 Lothrop, Eaton, Jr. S. A Century of Cameras. Bobbs Ferry: Morgan & Morgan, Inc., 1973. 1. Print. Matthews, Vince. "Who was the Inventor of Photography." DMACentral. N.p., 2010. Web. 25 Oct. 2013 "Milestones in Photography." National Geographic. National Geographic, 2011. Web. 25 Oct. 2013. "Photography: The Wet Collodion Process." The J. Paul Getty Museum. The J. Paul Getty Trust, 2012. Web. 25 Oct. 2013. Susan, Rika. "History of Digital Photography - A Snapshot Over Time." Ezine Articles. N.p., 4 Jan. 2006. Web. 25 Oct. 2013. Tolmachev, Ivan. "A History of Photography Part 1: The Beginning." Tuts+. N.p., 15 Mar. 2010. Web. 25 Oct. 2013. Vartanian, Hrag. "How Many Photos Do American's Take A Year?" Hyperallergic. N.p., 21 Mar. 2012. Web. 25 Oct. 2013. "1878-1929." Kodak. N.p., 23 Mar. 2012. Web. 25 Oct. 2013.