Photography History
Two vital element in Photography
Question#1
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Optical: Lenses captures light
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Chemicals: Allowed
photographers to
process their
negatives and prints
Camera Obscura
Question# 2
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Latin for dark room.
People using this technology.
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Aristotle (c. 300 BC).
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). The camera
obscura (Lat. dark chamber)
Arabian scholar Hassan ibn Hassan in the 10th
century
Later another device that will aid in drawing will
be developed in the 1800’s call the Camera
Lucida
Camera Obscura
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Optical device used in
drawing,
 Contributed toward
the invention of
photography.
 Photographic devices
today are still known
as "cameras".
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce
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1816-1818, experiments
combining Camera Obscura
with light-sensitive paper,
failures
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Found that Silver Nitrate and
Silver Chloride would turn
black when struck by light.
1818, image fixed for 3 months
He ran out of money and in
poor health.
He stopped short of producing
a permanent image.
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William Henry Fox Talbot
Question#3
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Title: William Henry Fox
Talbot. (1800-1877)
In England, Talbot
creates permanent
(negative) images using
paper soaked in silver
chloride and fixed with a
salt solution.
Perfected the Calotype
process
Calotype Process
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5.
photogenic drawing
First to produce a
negative image.
not as bright or as
detailed as
daguerreotype
multiple copies could
be made
Image quality is a little
soft and unsharp
Louis Jacques
Mande Daguerre (pronounced Dagair)
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Title: Louis Jacques Mande
Daguerre. (1787-1851)
dioramas (Diorama)
interest in lenses
1829: after several years of
back and forth, Niépce and
Daguerre team up.
1833: Niépce dies, penniless.
Daguerre first to make a
positive image as mercury
vapor was used to produce an
image formed on a silver
coated copper sheet made
sensitive to light
 Question
#4
Daguerreotype Process
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Mirrorlike surface,
negative from certain
angles delicate, in thick
glass
No multiple prints
Could not capture motion
5-40 minute exposure
time
Initially, not practical for
portraits
Early Photography
Question #5
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Early Photography
consisted mostly of
pictures of Famous
People and Out
Doors
Frederick Scott Archer
Collodion (wet plate) process
Question#6
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Frederick Scott
Archer invents
Collodion process
(but doesn’t patent)
Collodion Process
 This
process replaces Daguerrotype
 The definite advantage was that the
collodion plate had a depth of detail and
sharpness unprecedented exposed and
developed inside the camera.
 reduced exposure time to just a few
seconds
 brought portraiture to the people (tintype)
REVIEW
 People
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just covered
DaVinci
Niepce
Talbot
Daguerre
Morse
Archer
 Process
- lenses
- chemical
- Calotype process
- Daguerreotype process
- most famous Daguerrotypist
- Collodion process
just covered
• Calotype
• Daguerretype
• Collodion
– perfected by Talbot
– developed by Daguerre
– developed by Archer
Matthew Brady
Question #7
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Title: Mathew Brady,
1875
 taught by Samuel Morse
 had portrait studios in
New York and
Washington DC
 portrait photographers’
pictures of soldiers
 1862, closed studios,
went to photograph the
Civil War
Matthew Brady
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Title: First Battle of Bull Run,
1861
was probably one of the
greatest of photographic
documentary photographers
by end of Civil War, his team
had taken over 7000
negatives
didn’t ignore harsh reality
public wasn’t ready for stark
brutality of images
Darkroom of the Civil War
Question #8
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The Civil War
Darkroom was a
Covered Wagon
 Very mobile
 Used by
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Brady
Gardner
O’Sullivan
W.H. Jackson
Photography more than a portrait
Question # 9
- William Henry Jackson
photographed the frontier
http://www.andrewsmithgallery.com/exhibitions/whjackson/index.htm
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Yellowstone Park
Helped to create
Yellowstone as a park once
viewed by Congress
What was just covered
 Photography
came out of the studio
 Real life pictures were documenting
current events
 Photography persuades public opinion
Joseph Muybridge
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1871 Invention of the
moveable shutter
 Had a bet with Leyland
Stanford that a horse in full
stride did not have all four feet
off the ground.
 In 1878 Muybridge proved the
horse bunched the legs under
it belly at full stride.
 The techniques eventually lead
to motion pictures.
Horse Running
Question # 10
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Click here to see
horse video.
George Eastman
Question # 11
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Title: A 1954 U.S. stamp
featuring George
Eastman. 1888
Photo paper could be
purchased instead of
made by hand.
$25 camera. $10 have
photos developed.
Kodak #1 camera,
Question # 12
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Photo taken with
Kodak #1 camera,
1890
 Took 100 photos
 The entire camera
was sent back to
Kodak for developing
 By the end of the
century camera clubs
were flourishing
What we just covered
 Photography
was capable caputuring
multiple images
 Kodak put cameras in the hands of
common people
 “Snapshot” clubs developed
Alfred Stieglits
Question # 13
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Top: self-portrait of
Alfred Stieglits
Bottom: everyday life
Stieglits produced
emotional glimpses of
everyday life.
“Documentary”
Photography born
Champion of
• “Straight Photography”
Photo as a means of expression
Question # 14
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Light meter invented 1930
Half-tone process created and used in the mass
production of books and magazines
History has now become visual as well as verbal.
Question # 15
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Life Magazine is the birth of “Photojournalism”.
Vogue Magazine used the camera as a platform for
fashion.
What we just covered
 Everyday
life is photographed
 Documentary photography is developed
 The light meter was developed
 Mass production of photos is capable due
to the half-tone process
 Life and Vogue magazine have photos as
their magazine foundation.
Ansel Adams
Question # 16
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Title:
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Ansel Adams,
El Capitan, Winter
Ansel Adams and Fred
Archer are credited with
creating the zone system
Adams is primarily
associated with Yosemite
Valley, Ca. imagery.
Diane Arbus
Question # 17
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She took her camera
places where people
we afraid to go.
 Mental hospitals
 Physical deformities
The Big Picture of Photography
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Expression of art as well as science
Portraits - Talbot
Document history – Brady
Motion pictures developed out of photography - Horse
Kodak put the camera in the hands of all - Eastman
Everyday life documented - Stieglitz
Books/Magazines used photography for their
products/beliefs - Life/Vogue
Landscape was explored – Ansel Adams
The physical surroundings were invistigated both human
and natural – Diane Arbus