Photography: Life through a Lens
Since the origins of the first camera, photography has allowed us to view the world in a different light; a light that has enhanced and changed our ability to be able to watch and learn. Some may say that a photograph is worth a thousand words, or even be beyond words. In this article I will explore the history of photography, and how it has become one of our biggest communication tools.
Photography is derived from the Greek words photos ("light") and graphein ("to draw"), and is a method of recording images by the action of light, or related radiation, on a sensitive material.
‘Camera Obscura’
The basic idea of photography came about in the 5th Century B.C, but it wasn’t until the development of the camera obscura (or ‘pinhole camera’) by Iraqi scientist Ibn Al-Haytham in the 11th Century that more ideas began to develop.
The camera did not actually record images; they simply projected them onto another surface. The images were also upside down. The first camera obscuras used a pinhole in a tent to project an image from outside the tent into the darkened area. It took until the 17th Century for camera obscuras to be made small enough to be portable and basic lenses to be added.
Photography as we know it today began in the late 1830s in France when Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used a portable camera obscura to expose a pewter plate coated with bitumen to light. This created the first image that did not fade quickly.
Advancements
Shortly after Niepce joined forces with Louis Daguerre and the creation of the Daguerreotype was born. Daguerreotypes were the forerunners to the modern film. A copper plate was coated with silver and exposed to iodine vapor before it was exposed to light. To create the image on the plate, the earlier Daguerreotypes had to be exposed to light for up to 15 minutes. The Daguerreotype was very popular until it was replaced in the late 1850s by emulsion plates.
In the 1870’s dry plates were founded. They improved precision and allowed for more speed and quality on capture, enhancing the photographic experience.
Kodak
Photography was seen to be for professionals only until socialite George Eastman started a company called Kodak in the 1880’s. Eastmen created a flexible roll of film which didn’t require constantly changing plates. This allowed him to develop a self-contained box camera that held 100 exposures of film. This camera had a small single lens with no focusing adjustment. People could now take pictures and send them off for development – just like the disposable cameras of today.
To own a camera was still a luxury until the middle part of the 20th century. Whilst the 35mm cameras became more popular, Polariod introduced the ‘instant image’, using a chemical process to develop film inside the camera in less than a minute. People loved the novelty of instant capture, and by the mid 60’s Polariod had many affordable models on the market.
The Nikon SLR was introduced in Japan shortly after with its interchangeable lenses and other accessories, which were all prominent in catching the public’s attention to explore photography more.
Welcome to the Digital Age!
In the late 1970s and early 1980s compact cameras that were capable of making image control decisions on their own were introduced. These "point and shoot" cameras calculated shutter speed, aperture and focus; leaving photographers free to concentrate on composition. While these cameras became immensely popular with casual photographers, professionals and serious amateurs continued to prefer to make their own adjustments to image control.
In the 1980s and 1990s, numerous manufacturers worked on cameras that stored images electronically. The first of these were point and shoot cameras that used digital media instead of film. By 1991, Kodak had produced the first digital camera advanced enough to be used successfully by professionals. Other manufacturers quickly followed and today Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and other manufacturers all offer advanced digital SLR cameras. Even the most basic point and shoot camera now takes higher quality images than Niépce’s pewter plate.
It’s hard to believe that from its humble beginnings photography has become the dominant force that it now is. Who can imagine life without the ease of a camera phone or digital camera at hand with the ability to capture the beauty and destruction of life? Photography continually documents and takes life to new heights; and with constant evolvement of technology – things can only get better.
Clare Butler for DEApress
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