Chapter 9-2: The Invention of Photography

Chapter 9-2: The Invention of Photography

Ancient times: Camera Obscura used to form images on walls in darkened rooms; image formation via a pinhole

The Inventors of Photography The Camera Obscura: (Latin: dark chamber ) How does Camera Obscura work? It was a simple box with a small whole in the front to take in light. Inside the box was a piece of treated paper which was coated in a thick, light sensitive compound to capture the image onto.

17th century: Camera Obscura in frequent use by artists and made portable.

This is a drawing of a camera obscura done in 1646. This drawing shows an outer shell with lenses in the center of each wall and an inner shell with transparent paper for drawing. The artist needed to enter by a trap door in the bottom.

The camera obscura was used in the painting of this picture. It was painted about 1660 by Jan Vermeer. His paintings are known for their "camera-like" detail and quality but were painted 150 years before the invention of the camera "View of Delft"

Camera Obscura use in Painting 15 th through 18 th century Van Eyck Vermeer Hockney s theory

Joseph Niepce He produced the first known photograph 1826 Scene from window

First Recorded Image by Joseph Niepce, 1826, that took 8 hours of exposure time. His process was called the Heliograph process. "View from the Window at Le Gras, France, 1826

1816: Joseph Niepce combines the camera obscura with photosensitive paper

The most successful processes, however, were the Daguerreotype (positive on metal) and the Calotype (negative on paper).

Daguerreotype 1837: Louis Daguerre creates images on silver-plated copper, coated with silver iodide and "developed" with warmed mercury

Louis Jacques Daguerre The first known photo of a person Paris boulevard, 1839 What are the characteristics of Dagerreotype prints?

1837: Louis Daguerre creates images on silver-plated copper, coated with silver iodide and "developed" with warmed mercury; Daguerre is awarded a state pension by the French government in exchange for publication of methods and the rights by other French citizens to use the Daguerreotype process.

Daguerre's process, which he named the daguerreotype, was announced to the world on January 7, 1839. Half a year later the French government gave Daguerre and Niepce's son, Isidore, lifetime pensions in exchange for all rights to their invention. The daguerreotype was to become France's gift to the world. Here is one of the first daguerreotypes that was taken in 1839. It is a picture of Port Ripetta, Rome in Italy.

"I was first!" Three weeks after Daguerre's announcement an English amateur scientist, Henry Fox Talbot, read about the daguerreotype and realized that this invention was a lot like his own unpublicized process that he called photogenic drawing. He quickly tried to claim priority over Daguerre and presented his process in a paper to the Royal Society in London, England.

Niepce (left) began sharing his findings with Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre (right), an artist who owned a theatre in Paris. They became partners three years later. Daguerre's most important discovery came in 1835, two years after Niepce died.

Daguerre found that the chemical compound silver iodide was much more sensitive to light than Niepce's bitumen. He put a copper plate coated with silver iodide in a camera obscura, exposed this plate to light for a short time, then to fumes of mercury and an image appeared! One problem remained, the image darkened over time. Two years later he solved this problem by washing away remaining silver iodide with a solution of warm water and table salt. Daguerre Still life 1837

1834: Henry Fox Talbot creates permanent (negative) images using paper soaked in silver chloride and fixed with a salt solution. Talbot created positive images by contact printing onto another sheet of paper.

Calotype (or Talbotype)

Henry Fox Talbot What further contribution did Talbot make to photography? positive negative Photography by Talbot

Calotype What is a Calotype s characteristics? Contrast the characteristics of a Calotype with a Daguerreotype. Pages from Talbot s The Pencil of Nature, 1844 The first book to be illustrated entirely with photograph.

Photogram Photogenic drawing: (aka, photogram) How is a photogenic Drawing made? Camera-less shadow picture of flowers, 1839

A photogram is a photograph that is made without the use of a camera You make a photogram by placing objects directly onto a light sensitive material and exposing it all to light The result is a negative shadow image that will vary in tone depending on the opacity of the object placed on top.

Laszlo Maholy Nagy, Austria 1919

The Daguerreotype - Photographic Processes Series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d932q6jyrg8

Talbot's Processes - Photographic Processes Series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwv-hikq63i

Cyanotype Cyanotype was invented in 1842 by the famous astronomer sir John Herschel. Herschel needed a way to copy notes from his Astronomy research. He created what is commonly known as a blue print.

Sir John Herschel What was Herschel s contribution to photography? What further contribution did Talbot make to photography? positive negative Photography by Talbot

George Eastman 1888-Introduction of the first commercial camera. Ordinary citizens now had the ability to create images and keep a graphic record of their lives and experiences.

The Application of Photography to Printing John Calvin Moss 1871 Many inventors still searched for a better process to bring line artwork to a metal printing plate. The slow integration of photoengraving cut the cost and time required to produce printing blocks and you got a better image.

The Application of Photography to Printing How was photography used in the early days of mass communications? Freedmen on the Canal Bank in Richmond Photographer: Mathew Brady Wood engraving: John Macdonald

Photolithographic Print Joseph Niepce First image printed from plate with chemicals and light and not by human hand.

A Scene in Shantytown Stephen H. Horgan A Scene in Shantytown March 4, 1880 first reproduction of a photograph published in The New York Daily Graphic it was created with half-tones.

Defining the Medium Julia Margaret Cameron Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1866 What was Julia Margaret Cameron s contribution to photography? Perhaps best known for portraiture that revealed the inner being of this artist s subjects,, whose work has been hailed by scientists, writers, and artists as a major contribution to images expressing the human condition, used the collodion process of photography for artistic applications after receiving a camera as a birthday present.

F. T. Nadar What was Mr. Nadar s contribution to photography? Sarah Bernhardt, 1859

Matthew Brady How did Matthew Brady influence not only the art of photography, but history through his photographic works? Dunker Church and the Dead, 1862

The first moving photograph Eadweard Muybridge wanted to prove that when animals ran, all four legs came off the ground at once. To do this he used somewhere between 12 and 24 cameras placed along a track and took all of the photos consecutively.

The work of Marey and Muybridge in the late 1900s led to scientific discoveries and also led to the invention of motion picture films in the 20th century

Eadweard Muybridge Sequence photography proved the ability of graphic images to record space and time relationships. The Horse in Motion, 1883 What was a logical outcome of this development in photography?

Conclusion to Photography Upon the arrival of the 20 th century, photography was becoming an increasingly important tool in the reproduction of graphic design.