Secondary Research

History of Photography

The first partially successful photograph of a camera image was made in approximately 1816
by Nicphore Nipce, using a very small camera of his own making and a piece of paper coated with
silver chloride, which darkened where it was exposed to light.

It was commercially introduced in 1839, a date generally accepted as the birth year of practical
photography. The metal-based daguerreotype process soon had some competition from the paper-
based calotype negative and salt print processes invented by William Henry Fox Talbot.

Photography is the art of taking and processing photographs.

Bellis, M. (22nd Feb 2017). History of Photography and the Camera.Available:

https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-photography-and-the-camera-1992331. Last
accessed 18th Sep 2017.

Calotype: 1841

Around the same time that Daguerreotypomania was taking hold, the British inventor William
Henry Fox Talbot unveiled his own photographic process called the Calotype. This method traded
the Daguerreotypes metal plates for sheets of high-quality photosensitive paper. When exposed to
light, the paper produced a latent image that could be developed and preserved by rinsing it with
hyposulphite. The results were slightly fuzzier than Daguerreotypes, but they offered one key
advantage: ease of reproduction. Unlike Daguerreotypes, which only made one-off images, the
Calotype allowed photographers to produce endless copies of a picture from a single negative.

The Wet-Collodion Process: 1851

Daguerreotypes and Calotypes were both rendered obsolete in 1851, after a sculptor named
Frederick Scott Archer pioneered a new photographic method that combined crisp image quality
with negatives that could be easily copied. Archers secret was a chemical called collodion, a
medical dressing that also proved highly effective as a means for coating light-sensitive solutions
onto glass plates. While these wet plates reduced exposure times to only a few seconds, using
them was often quite the chore. The plates had to be exposed and processed before the collodion
mixture dried and hardened, so photographers were forced to travel with portable darkroom tents
or wagons if they wanted to take pictures in the field. Despite this drawback, the wet-collodion
processs unparalleled quality and cheap cost made it an instant success.

Dry Plates: 1871-1878

For most of the 1800s, the panoply of noxious solutions and mixtures involved in using a camera
made photography difficult for anyone without a working knowledge of chemistry. That finally
changed in the 1870s, when Robert L. Maddox and others perfected a new type of photographic
plate that preserved silver salts in gelatin. Since they retained their light-sensitivity for long periods
of time, these dry plates could be prepackaged and mass-produced, freeing photographers from
the annoying task of prepping and developing their own wet plates on the fly. Dry plates also
offered much quicker exposures, allowing cameras to more clearly capture moving objects. In the
1880s, photographer Eadweard Muybridge used dry plate cameras to conduct a series of famous
studies of humans and animals in motion. His experiments have since been cited as a crucial step in
the development of cinema.

Flexible Roll Film: 1884-1889

Photography didnt truly become accessible to amateurs until the mid-1880s, when inventor
George Eastman began producing film on rolls. Film was more lightweight and resilient than clunky
glass plates, and the use of a roll allowed photographers to take multiple pictures in quick
succession. In 1888, Eastman used flexible film as the primary selling point of his first Kodak
camera, a small, 100-exposure model that customers could use and then send back to the
manufacturer to have their photos developed. Eastmans camera was remarkably easy to usehe
marketed it to Victorian shutterbugs under the slogan You press the button, we do the restbut
its coated paper film produced fairly low quality photos. Film would improve by leaps and bounds
with the introduction of celluloid a year later, and remained the standard means of photography
for nearly a century until the advent of digital cameras.

Autochrome: 1907

The yearning for colour photography was practically as old as the medium itself, but a viable
method didnt arrive until 1907. That was the year the French brothers Louis and Auguste
Lumireperhaps better known as early pioneers of cinemabegan marketing an additive colour
process they dubbed Autochrome. The Lumieres found the key to their invention in a most
unlikely place: the potato. By adding tiny grains of dyed potato starch to a panchromatic emulsion,
they were able to produce vivid, painterly images that put all past attempts at colour to shame.
Autochrome would reign as the worlds most popular colour film technique until 1935, when a
more sophisticated colour process arrived in the form of the Eastman Kodak Companys legendary
Kodachrome film.

Andrews, E. (16th Apr 2015). 8 Crucial Innovations in the Invention of

Photography. Available: http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/8-crucial-
innovations-in-the-invention-of-photography. Last accessed 19th Sep 2017.

1900s Photography

The first 35mm still camera was made in 1913-1914.

The 35-millimeter camera was first invented in 1924 when Oskar Barnack and ErnstLeitz worked
together to create a simple camera that exposed short strips of 35mm film in Germany. In truth, the
first 35mm camera wasn't really much other than a box that had a lens, film, and a shutter.

General electric invented the modern flash bulb in 1927

Before the flash bulb was invented, photographers used flash lamps, this was something the
photographer would have to hold separate from the camera and activate it as they took the photo.
Now they have the flash bulb that is on the camera. At first they used glass but that ended up
breaking easily so they changed it to plastic.
ARCHAMBAULT, M. (5th Oct 2015). A Brief History of the Camera Flash, From Explosive
Powder to LED Lights. Available: https://petapixel.com/2015/10/05/a-brief-history-of-
the-camera-flash-from-explosive-powder-to-led-lights/. Last accessed 19th Oct 2017.

On November 26, the first land camera was sold for $89.95 in Boston. The model 95 land camera
becomes the prototype for all polaroid land cameras produced during the next 15 years.

Brown, M. ( ). Polaroid Instant Camera Goes on Sale. Available:

http://thisdayintechhistory.com/11/28/polaroid-instant-camera-goes-on-sale/. Last
accessed 19th Oct 2017.

Polaroid introduces instant colour film

First photography of the earth from the moon
On Aug. 23, 1966, the world received its first view of Earth taken by a spacecraft from the vicinity of
the Moon. The photo was transmitted to Earth by the Lunar Orbiter I and received at the NASA
tracking station at Robledo De Chavela near Madrid, Spain. The image was taken during the
spacecraft's 16th orbit.

Fuji makes the first consumer all digital camera, the DS-1P

. ( ). A photographic film producer develops the worlds first fully digital

camera. Available: http://www.fujifilm.com/innovation/achievements/ds-1p/. Last
accessed 19th Oct 2017.

And just before the 2000s the DSLRs were invented.

DSLRs have the advantage in lens selection and an optical viewfinder that works better in low light,
but they are more complex and bulkier.

. ( ). A Detailed History of Photography (Timeline). Available:

http://shutterstoppers.com/history-of-photography. Last accessed 19th Sep
2017.

Because of the advances in technology, photography has become more convenient and accessible
throughout the years. When photography was first invented, it required an expert with advanced
training in handling photographic equipment and darkroom chemicals. Developing pictures was time
consuming and expensive. Now it has become more accessible for everyone. Now many people take
photos and share them online within minutes.

The first type of photograph was the Daguerreotype, which required an expert level of knowledge to
take pictures. The long exposure times required people to sit still for up to 20 minutes. It was a very
impractical process back then and spontaneous photos were not a thing as you could imagine. It was
used mainly by upper class families.
In the middle of the 20th century, photography became more accessible when the Polaroid SX-70
camera was invented. Polaroid SX-70 pictures developed instantly. They did not require a long time
processing in a darkroom. By the 1970s, most families had photo albums filled with pictures of
special moments.

Digital photography went mainstream in 2007 with the invention of the iPhone. It was more
convenient than ever to take pictures and share them with the world. Using a Wi-Fi network, a
photographer could upload their pictures instantly to a social networking site. This made
photography more convenient and popular.

. ( ). How has photography changed over the years?. Available:

https://www.reference.com/hobbies-games/photography-changed-over-years-
2c6947acc53134c0. Last accessed 18th Sep 2017.

Photography has come a long way since it first started as the image quality has become much
sharper and clear and colour has been added. Technology such as computers and the internet has
help advance photography so much as you can now edit all the photos and share them all over the
world. Technology has also helped a lot as the photos can now be digital and this means you do not
have to use film anymore, this saves a lot of money and it is much easier for the photographer to
transfer their images. You can now simply use your phone to take a phot and upload an image.

Bellis, M. (22nd Feb 2017). History of Photography and the Camera.Available:

https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-photography-and-the-camera-1992331. Last
accessed 18th Sep 2017.

Taking a photo used to be a long process due to the shutter speed being very slow and
the person couldnt move until it was done, and it would even take a while for the image
to develop. Compare that to cameras nowadays and youll see a huge difference with the
speed and quality. The shutter speed is much faster now and you can change it to
however fast or slow you want it. You can even set it so it takes multiple images just so
you can get that one shot whilst someone is in action like a sports player. With a camera
you can record as well as take photos, even record just to get a photo and take a
snapshot from the recording.
Photographers can capture very magnificent moments and make them famous. If it wasnt for
photographers some of the most popular events that have happened would not be famous or as
popular. For example, a man stood in front of a fleet of tanks to stop them from going to the
protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. To this day no one knows who he is yet he is in one of the
most powerful photos of all time.
Back when coloured film was new and rare was when this image of Mohammed Ali was taken. This
was one of the most popular fights of the century, including the most famous fighter of all time. The
photographer was the only one out of two people to capture this moment in colour. At first this
image wasnt that popular as the other photographers photo in black and white covered more news
papers and magazines due to not having a specific assignment from any of them. Later on the years
this photo is now one of the most iconic ones, remember Ali in his prime with the winning knock out
punch. This photo brings memories and history to those who were around and to those inspired by
this athlete.