A Brief History of (pre-digital) Photography

Transcription

1 A Brief History of (pre-digital) Photography The word photography comes from two Greek words: photos, meaning light, and graphe, meaning drawing or writing. The word photography basically means, writing with light. Without light, there is no photography: as you learn more about photography, you will see just how vital lighting is to the success of a photograph. The first attempt at photography was done with a device known as a camera obscura: the earliest known mention of a camera obscura was in China, around 400 BC. A camera obscura is a device or enclosure; it is dark, except for a single opening to let a beam of light in. The beam of light shines through the opening to the opposite side: whatever image is outside of the opening to the camera obscura is projected onto the interior wall opposite the opening. The earliest camera obscuras were actual rooms: artists could stand in a darkened room and sketch the image projected on the opposite wall. (One catch, though: the projected image will be inverted, or upside down.) Eventually, camera obscuras were shrunk into smaller devices. While the camera obscura worked to copy an image by tracing its projection, there wasn t a way to record the image other than painstakingly tracing over the image. Joseph Nicephore Niepce lacked the steady hand needed to trace an image, so he worked with different chemical compositions to see if he could record the image another way. Certain chemicals darken when exposed to light; Niepce found the right mix to record an image.

2 View from the Window at Le Gras is regarded as the first known photograph (the first that survived after many attempts) and was created in 1825 or It took an exposure time of around eight hours to record the image. Think of taking a photo with a modern camera or smart phone: the shutter opens for a fraction of a second to record the image. Now, imagine holding your camera or phone for eight hours to let enough light in to record the image. Though Niepce was the first to record images on a surface, he struggled to keep those images from fading away. He collaborated with artist and physicist Louis Daguerre to perfect the process. They worked together from 1829 to 1833, when Niepce died suddenly. Daguerre continued their work, improving the process into what he called the Daguerreotype. The earliest Daguerreotypes took around ten minutes to record an image, so most early photographs using this method were of landscapes or still life : things that did not move. Even with developments that sped up the exposure time, subjects might have to hold still for several minutes to record the image. Ever wonder why everyone always looks so stern and serious in old photographs? Would you like to hold a smile for five minutes straight, without moving? Daguerreotypes eventually became obsolete as newer, better methods came around.

3 First known photograph of a human being: Boulevard Du Temple by Louis Daguerre, Exposure time for the photograph was around 10 minutes long, so anything moving would not have appeared. However, a man who was getting his shoes shined stood long enough to be recorded for all time. Robert Cornelius took the first known portrait of a human being (it was a selfie).

4 While the earliest photographs were created on plates of glass, tin, or other materials, in 1884, George Eastman invented paper-based photographic film. In 1888, Eastman patented the roll-film camera. Now, rather than using one plate at a time for each photograph, a roll of film could be loaded for multiple photographs. However, photography was still in the hands of professional photographers and serious hobbyists, until 1900: when the Kodak Brownie camera was invented. The Brownie was the first mass-marketed camera: now ANYONE could easily take photographs. The camera was inexpensive and simple to operate; it came preloaded with film, usually around 8-12 exposures. Once the film roll was used up, the entire camera was sent in to Kodak, where the film was processed. The photographs were returned, along with the camera, freshly loaded with a new roll of film. The slogan on Brownie advertisements was You push the button, we do the rest. In 1934, Kodak introduced 135 film, commonly known as 35mm film. The film came in individual one-use rolls (most commonly with 24 or 36 exposures) that could be loaded into a camera in the daylight (previously, film had to be loaded in pitch black, or else the film would be exposed to light and ruined). This became the most common size of film used for still photography, and remains so to this day. Even though most companies have severely cut their 35mm camera and film options for consumers, there are still options for people who want to stay true to film photography. While most photographers have made the switch to digital, there are still holdouts that swear on the purity of film.

5 Another advancement in photography arrived with Kodachrome film in 1934: the first successful color film. Kodachrome was a popular film choice for photographers for decades; the colors were crisp with a high contrast, and the film itself had a long shelf life. Kodachrome film was so popular, it inspired a famous song by musician Paul Simon, and had a national park named after it. Unfortunately, the growth of digital cameras and new advancements in color film processing ended Kodachrome manufacturing after 74 years. Kodachrome film processing was rather difficult and time-consuming; in fact, at the end of its run, there was only one place in the entire world that still processed it. By 2008, no matter where you might drop off your Kodachrome film to be developed, it ended up at Dwayne s Photo in Parsons, Kansas. Sometime around December 2010, Dwayne s Photo permanently discontinued development of Kodachrome film when the last of the developing chemicals were used up. A major advancement in photography technology was made by the Polaroid Corporation in 1948 with the introduction of the instant camera. With regular film cameras, the image is burned on a film, which needs to be brought to a darkroom and processed into photographs using chemicals. With the Polaroid camera, the film itself comes with its own darkroom. The film for Polaroid photos actually holds all of the chemicals needed for film development: they exist in separate layers to keep them from interacting with each other. Like a regular camera, the image is burned onto a negative, but then the user pulls a tab, the chemicals are released to mix and burn the image onto the photographic paper. Instant photography had a major impact on society, but sadly, Polaroid Corporation struggled to stay with the times, and announced that it would no longer produce its line of instant cameras (and film) in However, in 2009, with the help of investors, Polaroid reinstated the line.

6 After covering this section, you should be able to: *Define the etymology of the word photography *Explain what a camera obscura is *Identify Nicephore Niepce and his contribution to photography *Identify Louis Daguerre and his contribution to photography *define a Daguerreotype *Identify George Eastman; explain the significance of the Kodak Brownie *Explain the significance of Kodachrome film *Explain the significance of the Polaroid Instant Camera