DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY |
ART 129
A (Brief) History of Photography
Louis Daguerre, inventor of photography,
explains his new picture-taking box to a
friend. He perfected his photographic
process in 1839.
A Definition of
Photography
The word Photography is derived from two
Greek words:
Photo = light
Graphy = to write.
As a type of writing, photography is a visual
language and the result of layers upon
layers of invention and creativity.
The Camera Obscura
The earliest camera was literally a dark room.
Early cameras acted as optical devices and the Camera Obscura (literally translates as “dark chamber”)
would project an outside scene onto a wall inside.
The device consisted of a box (or room) with a hole in one side. Light from an outside scene would pass
through the hole in the room and hit the surface of a wall inside where IT would be reproduced, upside-down,
with perspective preserved.
Mo-Ti (470-391 BCE)
Alhazan (965 –1040)
Roger Bacon (1214 –
1294)
The earliest mention of an image-making device was by the Chinese philosopher
Mo-Ti (in the 5th century BCE). Mo-Ti wrote about the idea of an inverted image formed by light
rays passing through a pinhole into a darkened room. He called this darkened room a
"collecting place" or a "locked treasure room.”
In 1038 AD an Arab scholar named Alhazan described a working model of the Camera Obscura.
Although Alhazan did not actually construct the device, his work influenced future
philosophers and scientists interested in optics.
In 1267 AD, an English philosopher named Roger Bacon created a Camera Obscura and
projected an image of the sun directly upon an opposite wall.
It has also been noted that in the Middle East,
Nomads who would shelter themselves from the sun in their tents,
would poke a small hole, (known as an aperture) inside the tent.
This hole would be positioned behind their backs whatever was outside the tent would project inside the
tent creating an image on the surface of the tent. This way the nomads could watch the desert horizon for
danger or approaching friends without having to be exposed to the harsh desert sun.
Illustration of Camera Obscura, circa 17th century
Early Camera Obscura Advertisements
Camera Obscura “Stuff” To Take Along
The Major Players
(aka Early Inventors/Advancers of
Photography)
Johann Heinrich Shulze (1687-1744)
Schulze is best known for the discovery that exposing certain silver compounds to light altered
their appearance and left marks wherever light touched.
Though his discovery did not provide the means of making an image permanent his work did
provide the foundation for future work in ‘fixing’ images (or making them permanent).
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833)
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce is credited for making the first permanent image.
As early as 1793, he and his brother had discussed the possibility of using light to reproduce
images. Niépce's earliest experiments in this direction began in 1816.
His trials resulted in the earliest known surviving photograph made with a camera, which he
produced in 1826 or 1827.
View from the window at Le Gras (1826) by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre ( November 18,
1787 – July 10, 1851)
Artist and Chemist from France.
Inventor of the Daguerreotype: a one-of-a-kind image on a highly polished,
silver-plated copper sheet coated with iodine crystals. The plate was then exposed inside the
camera, however it only made a positive image.
On January 7, 1839 Daguerre announced that he had invented a process using silver on a copper
plate and displayed the first plate.
Boulevard du Temple, Paris, late 1838/early 1839
William Henry Fox Talbot (February 11, 1800 –
September 17, 1877)
English chemist, linguist, archaeologist, and pioneer photographer.
Talbot is best known for his development of the Calotype, an early photographic process that
was an improvement over the Daguerreotype. Talbot’s Calotype involved the use of a
photographic negative from which multiple prints could be made.
Lattice Window at Lacock Abbey, 1835
(oldest negative in existence)
Botanical Specimen, 1839
Talbot’s Daughters
Articles of China, 1843
Unknown Photographer, Jabez Hogg Making a Portrait in Richard Beard's Studio,
1843
Robert Cornelius, Self-Portrait, Oct. or Nov. 1839
Early Photography studio with Head prop.
The TinType
Tin Type: A photograph on a sheet of iron metal.
Introduced in the 1850s as a very simple, fast to prepare, cheap to make image.
Available to all, not as fragile as prior images.
Photography Advances into
the Mainstream
Illuminating photography: From Camera Obscura
to Camera Phone - Eva Timothy/TED:ED
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaGUL8BBrE
Hector Horeau, Abu Simbel, 1842
John L. Dunmore and George Critcherson,
Sailing Ships in an Ice Field, 1869
Timothy O’Sullivan, Ancient Ruins in the Canyon de Chelle,
New Mexico, 1873
Jacob Riis, Bandit’s Roost, NYC 1888
Alfred Stieglitz, Sun’s Rays, Berlin, 1889
Man Ray, Untitled (Wire Spiral and Smoke), 1923
Man Ray, Violin d’Ingres, 1924
Alexander Rodchenko, Montage, 1923
Edward Steichen, Anna May Wong, 1930
Edward Weston, Pepper # 30, 1930
Harry Callahan, Eleanor, 1948
Harry Callahan, Eleanor
Harry Callahan, Eleanor
Bill Brandt, Nude, 1953
WeeGee
Bob Marley, Lee Jaffe
Basquiat Lee Jaffe
Sally Mann, Family, 1981
Graciela Iturbide, Senor de Pajoros, 1984
William Eggleston. Memphis, Tennessee. 1970
William Eggleston.
William Eggleston. Memphis, Tennessee. 1970
Joel Meyerowitz, Porch, Provincetown, 1977
Nan Goldin, Nan and Brian in Bed, New York City 1983
Larry Sultan Portrait of My Father with Newspaper
Irving Penn
Martina Lopez, Revolutions in Time, 1994
Digital Photography
The taking or manipulation of photographs that are stored as data files on a computer
Taking pictures with a digital camera and storing and printing them on digital devices.
Brief Background of the Digital Camera
In 1972, the Texas Instruments corporation created the patent for an all-electric camera. It is not
known if any prototype was ever built, but many assume that it was not. The device presented in
their patent was not digital but ran on analog parts. Years earlier, Eugene Lally had the idea for a
camera that used a mosaic photo sensor but never really acted on the idea. Willis Adcock had
an idea for a digital camera but never took any steps to create the device.
Who Invented the Digital Camera?
In 1975, the Eastman Kodak Company assigned a task to its engineering team. The task
questioned whether a camera could be built using electronic parts and with an electronic sensor.
Eastman Kodak Company electrical engineer Steve Sasson responded to this in 1975 by
creating the world's first digital camera prototype. The device was never meant to be mass
produced, however.
About the First Digital Camera
The first digital camera invented by Steve Sasson was created from parts from other cameras.
The device had parts that were taken from other cameras as the body and other Kodak pieces
used for the rest. The whole device weighed over 8 pounds and was as large as a toaster of the
time. The device was nowhere as quick or compact as modern digital cameras or camera
phones. The protocol of the digital camera took 23 seconds to make a photograph and only
produced images that were 1/10 of a modern pixel. It then took 23 seconds for the image to
process on a cassette tape!
Lori Nix
Lori Nix
Annie Leibovitz
ChiModu
ChiModu
Mark Seliger
Mark Seliger
Irving Penn
Kevin Bubriski (born North Adams, MA 1954)
World Trade Center Series, New York City
2001
Robert Polidari
Robert Polidari
“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something
interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you
see and everything to do with the way you see them.”
— Elliott Erwitt
A History of Photography in 60 Seconds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KO-CAUttZU