History of Photography
The Early Years BW
•
•
•
•
•
Daguerreotypes
Calotypes
Tintypes
Stereographs
Documentary
•
•
•
•
George Eastman
Pictorialist
Straight Photography
Photojournalism
The Daguerreotype
Abraham Lincoln, Meserve no. 3,
Daguerreotype
Date: July 11, 1858
Creator: Schneidaui-Loraut, Polycarp von
Unidentified Photographer
Portrait of Pamela Steele Harrison,
circa 1849-1852
Daguerreotype
Sixth Plate (2 ¾ x 3 ¼ inches)
John Ruskin's Daguerreotype of a
group of windows in the façade of
the Casa degli Zane, Venice
The Daguerreotype
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre invented the daguerreotype process in France. The invention was
announced to the public on August 19, 1839 at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris.
American photographers quickly capitalized on this new invention, which was capable of capturing a "truthful
likeness." Daguerreotypists in major cities invited celebrities and political figures to their studios in the hopes
of obtaining a likeness for display in their windows and reception areas. They encouraged the public to visit
their galleries, which were like museums, in the hope that they would desire to be photographed as well. By
1850, there were over 70 daguerreotype studios in New York City alone.
Popularity of the daguerreotype declined in the late 1850s when the ambrotype, a faster and less expensive
photographic process, became available. A few contemporary photographers have revived the process.
The Process
The daguerreotype is a direct-positive process, creating a highly detailed
image on a sheet of copper plated with a thin coat of silver without the
use of a negative. The process required great care. The silver-plated
copper plate had first to be cleaned and polished until the surface looked
like a mirror. Next, the plate was sensitized in a closed box over iodine
until it took on a yellow-rose appearance. The plate, held in a lightproof
holder, was then transferred to the camera. After exposure to light, the
plate was developed over hot mercury until an image appeared. To fix
the image, the plate was immersed in a solution of sodium thiosulfate or
salt and then toned with gold chloride.
Exposure times for the earliest daguerreotypes ranged from three to fifteen
minutes, making the process nearly impractical for portraiture. Modifications to
the sensitization process coupled with the improvement of photographic lenses
soon reduced the exposure time to less than a minute.
Although daguerreotypes are unique images, they could be copied by
redaguerreotyping the original. Copies were also produced by lithography or
engraving. Portraits based upon daguerreotypes appeared in popular
periodicals and in books. James Gordon Bennett, the editor of the New York
Herald, posed for his daguerreotype at Brady's studio. An engraving, based on
this daguerreotype later appeared in the Democratic Review.
The Cameras
The earliest cameras used in the
daguerreotype process were made by
opticians and instrument makers, or
sometimes even by the photographers
themselves. The most popular cameras
utilized a sliding-box design. The lens was
placed in the front box. A second, slightly
smaller box, slid into the back of the larger
box. The focus was controlled by sliding
the rear box forward or backwards. A
laterally reversed image would be obtained
unless the camera was fitted with a mirror
or prism to correct this effect. When the
sensitized plate was placed in the camera,
the lens cap would be removed to start the
exposure.
Daguerreotype Plate Sizes
Whole plate 6-1/2" x 8-1/2" Half plate 41/4" x 5-1/2" Quarter plate 3-1/4" x 4-1/4"
Sixth plate 2-3/4" x 3-1/4" Ninth plate 2" x
2-1/2" Sixteenth plate 1-3/8" x 1-5/8"
The Calotype
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
Artist: David Octavius Hill
Nationality: British
Artist Dates: 1802-1870
Title: St. Andrews, Baiting
the Lines, Fishergate,
from the series "Calotype
Views of St. Andrews",
1846
Date: 1843-46 (negative),
ca. 1916 (print)
Mrs Logan; Mrs Seton;
two unidentified men;
Fishwives and Fishes.
HA0767 calotype negative
(waxed) and HA440 salt
print.
Conceptually, and in many ways, the photographic technique employed by Adamson and Hill was very similar to that still in use today. A negative was exposed
in the camera, developed in a dark room and then printed on sensitive paper. Their cameras, while wooden and large, are easy to relate to modern cameras.
However, their sensitive materials were quite different from ours in one important aspect. Modern photographic film and paper are highly refined highly
technological products made under strict controls in a factory setting. In addition to the other problems they faced, Adamson and Hill had to make each and
every sheet of negative or print material by hand. There are no significant records of their particular working practices. However, we know they were in close
touch with the art's inventor, William Henry Fox Talbot (especially through their mutual friend, Sir David Brewster) and it can be assumed that their practice
built on Talbot's approach.
The calotype negative process was sometimes called the Talbotype, after its inventor. It was not Talbot's first photographic process (introduced in 1839), but it
is the one for which he became most known. Henry Talbot devised the calotype in the autumn of 1840, perfected it by the time of its public introduction in mid1841, and made it the subject of a patent (the patent did not extend to Scotland).
The base of a calotype negative, rather than the glass or film to which we have become accustomed, was high quality writing paper. The sheet of paper was
carefully selected to have a smooth and uniform texture and, wherever possible, to avoid the watermark. The first stage, conducted in candlelight, was to
prepare what Talbot called his iodized paper. The paper was washed over with a solution of silver nitrate and dried by gentle heat. When nearly dry, it was
soaked in a solution of potassium iodide for two or three minutes, rinsed and again dried. As long as this iodized paper was stored carefully, it could be kept for
some time, so it was generally prepared in batches ahead of time.
Immediately before taking a photograph, a fresh solution of gallo-nitrate of silver was mixed up. This was made from equal quantities of a solution of silver
nitrate and one of gallic acid; the solution was unstable and had to be used right away. Under weak candlelight, a sheet of iodized paper was coated with this
solution, left to sit for about thirty seconds and then dipped in water. It was then partially dried in the dark, often using blotting paper. The calotype paper could
be employed completely dry, but was more sensitive when moist, and in any case had to be exposed in the camera within a few hours of preparation (Talbot
found that he could sometimes put it away for future use but its keeping qualities were never predictable).
Under near-total darkness, the sensitive calotype paper was loaded in the camera. It was exposed to the scene, sometimes for as little as ten seconds, usually
for a time closer to a minute, and sometimes for tens of minutes. If one were to examine the sheet of paper after withdrawing it from the camera, no image
would be seen (just as no image is visible on modern film when it is first removed from the camera). An invisible latent image was formed by the action of light.
A fresh solution of gallo-nitrate of silver was brought into play. Washed over the sheet of paper in a darkened room, it developed a visible image, usually within
a few seconds. When the operator judged that the development had proceeded far enough, the paper was then washed over with a fixing liquid. This was
sometimes a solution of potassium bromide and sometimes a solution of hypo (similar to modern fixers). Washing and drying completed the process.
At this point, there would be a negative image, deep brown or black in colour, on one surface of the writing paper. Being plain paper, the temptation to correct
errant details in pencil was natural to most operators. The artist Hill, and possibly the technician Adamson, frequently used pencil or ink to retouch the
negatives. Sometimes the dried negative was waxed to make it more transparent.
Strictly speaking, the term calotype referred only to the developed negative process. Prints could also be made on calotype paper, exposed and then
developed much like modern photographic papers, but this was a more complicated process and led to what were considered unsatisfactory cold print tones.
Only a few prints were made experimentally using the calotype process itself. Instead, the common practice was to turn to Talbot's original photogenic drawing
paper, invented by him in 1834 and the one first introduced to the public in 1839.
Talbot's original process was based on the same type of smooth writing paper employed in making the negatives. The printing paper was first soaked in a
solution of common table salt, dried, and then brushed on one side with a solution of silver nitrate. This embedded light-sensitive silver chloride within the
surface fibres of the paper. The dry paper was placed under the finished calotype negative, sandwiched under glass, and then placed in bright light. Within
perhaps fifteen minutes, a visible image had formed on the print paper. It was then fixed, most often in hypo, washed and dried. The image would be present in
rich brown tones, sometimes tending towards red, sometimes towards purple, depending on various factors and rarely fully controllable. These prints did not
have a widely accepted name in the 1840s (they were sometimes called transfers). Today, they are generally called salted paper prints or salt prints. Like the
calotype negatives, these plain paper prints could be easily retouched in ink or wash. However, unlike some of their contemporaries, Hill & Adamson preferred
to do their work on the negatives, and modified the prints very little.
The calotype negatives and the salt print processes, both invented by Talbot, share many characteristics. In both cases, the final visible image was finely
divided particles of metallic silver (the brown colours presented by this are a natural result of the scattering of light). Both were based on the same kind of
writing paper; the image is in the surface fibers of the paper, not in an emulsion or under a coating. Both were really negative processes (being itself a negative,
the printing paper reversed the tones of the camera negative back to the tones of the original subject). Multiple prints, of course, could be made from one
negative. The sensitivity of the paper was suitable only for contact printing, meaning that no enlargement took place and that the negative had to be the same
size as the desired final print. The salt prints were a printing-out process. The final image was composed of fine particles of metallic silver - the energy to
reduce this silver from the sensitive compounds came entirely from the light, and the visible image formed under its action. It was a relatively simple and
economical process and produced pleasing print tones. The calotype negative process was a developed-out process. It gained a much greater sensitivity by
chemically amplifying an invisible latent image left by the light. The colour of the negative was not of much import and the extra complications in its preparation
were worthwhile in the context of shortening exposure times.
Aside from the sheer work involved in producing each piece of thousands of sheets of sensitive material by hand, Adamson & Hill faced numerous
uncertainties. The paper base was one of the most capricious and a good batch of paper was avidly sought after. Like Talbot, Adamson & Hill favored
Whatman's Turkey Mill paper, a high quality product for writing. However, as a base for chemical operations, the paper had problems. It varied slightly in
thickness from spot to spot. Patches undetectable when looked at by reflected light (as in writing a letter) became painfully apparent when light was shown
through (as it would be for a negative). There were various chemical impurities. One of the most serious from a photographic point of view was the presence of
tiny pieces of metal, invisible to writers, but ready to create a spot when hit by the chemicals the photographers employed. These particles came from buttons
accidentally chopped up when the rags used to make the paper were processed. Chemicals were also not required to meet any standard and were only as
pure as the skill (and honesty) of the chemist could make them. It was not unusual to have traces of gold in silver compounds and various contaminations and
adulterations in other compounds. Another factor was water, the essential solvent that removed the photographically sensitive chemicals after use - if any
traces remained, the print might fade or develop blotches. Nicolaas Henneman, Talbot's former assistant, set up the world's first photographic print
establishment in Reading, England. The municipal water supplies were erratic, often flowing only a few hours a day, and heavily contaminated, particularly with
organic materials. Fortunately, Adamson & Hill had a steady supply of pure water and this might do much to explain the better lasting qualities of their prints.
A final factor was the sun. Virtually all the images were taken out of doors in order to gain as much light as possible. Reflectors were almost certainly employed
to control the light and to augment it where need be. On a good day, an average portrait negative outdoors might take about a minute's exposure. The prints,
made on the printing out paper, took much longer to expose. The light had to filter through the paper negative and then provide all the energy to make the print
image. An exposure time of fifteen minutes would be good - this could extend to half an hour or even several hours on an overcast day. Prints made with
extended exposures like these eventually became dark enough but never had the richness of tones available with bright light exposures. In addition, they were
more vulnerable to fading.
Pictorialist
Alice Burr, Telegraph Hill.
Bromoil print, ca. 1915
Alice Burr
Under the Arches, Tunis
ca. 1910-19
Plantinum print
Photographs by SF pictorialist photographer Sigismund Blumann
Edward S. Curtis photographed Hopi girls on a rooftop of Walpi pueblo. [LC-USZ62-80169
Documentary
Eugene Atget, "Untitled Still Life"
Familia italiana en Ellis Esland, New York, hacia 1905
g Horse 1878
uts and guides for the Army of the Potomac, Berlin, Md., October 1862. Photographed by Al
George Eastman
George Eastman invented dry,
transparent, and flexible,
photographic film (rolled photography
film) and the Kodak cameras that
could use the new film in 1888.
George Eastman, an avid
photographer was the founder of the
Kodak company.
"You press the button, we do the rest"
promised George Eastman in 1888
with this advertising slogan for his
Kodak camera.
Eastman wanted to simplify photography and
make it available to everyone. In 1883,
Eastman announced film in rolls. "Kodak"
was born in 1888 when the first Kodak
camera* entered the market. Pre-loaded with
enough film for 100 exposures, the camera
could easily be carried and handheld for
operation. After exposure, the whole camera
was returned to the company in Rochester,
New York, where the film was developed,
prints were made, new film was inserted, and
then returned to the customer.
Stereograph
Court of the Universe and Arch of the Eastern nations from the Palace of Agriculture,
Panama-Pacific Int. Exp., San Francisco, Calif.
John Muir and Theodore Rooseveldt
Straight Photography
Edward Weston. Pepper #30
Photojournalism
Tomoko in her Bath, 1972
Albert Schweitzer, 1954
er, "Destitute Pea Pickers in California. Mother of Seven Children. Age Thirty-Two. Nipomo,
Louise Dahl-Wolfe
William Edmondson and Miss Louisa
ca. 1934-7