History of Photography
Basics of Photography
1. When was photography invented?
1839
2. What does the word “photography” mean?
Derived from the Greek words “photo” which means “light”, and “graph”,
which means “writing”. Photography is writing with light.
3. In photography, what is the most important element of a photograph?
Light. Light traces the image onto the film. The light tells the film or
digital sensor what is being reflected.
4. What changes on the film when it is exposed to light? How is it different
when you work digitally?
Silver salts cause a chemical reaction on film. Pixels work similarly to the
salts when you take a picture digitally.
Mid-Sixteenth Century- Camera Obscura
5. What is a camera obscura?
It’s a box with a small hole and a lens. Artist used it to trace
images, like an over head projector in a box.
1826- Early Experimentation: Heliographs
6. What is a heliograph?
“Helio” = sun, “graph”= drawing.
A sun print.
An oiled engraving was placed onto a metal plate coated in bitumen (which is
like tar) and then exposed to light. The paper of the engraving became
transparent after many hours of soaking in the oil. The only thing left was the
engraving. The engraving blocked the dark areas and the exposed areas reacted
to the light. When the chemicals were washed away, a print remained. It
worked like a stencil or a photocopy.
1839- The Invention of Photography
7. What is a Daguerrotype? (Dee-gair-oh-type)
The first kind of photography. A sheet of silver plated copper that was polished
and coated in iodine (which made it light sensitive). The plate was put into a
camera and exposed to light. Then it was bathed in a solution of silver chloride.
Since this process creates mercury vapors, it was a poisonous process. The process
most likely shortened the lives of the photography processers because mercury is
so poisonous.
8. What is a Calotype?
“Kalos” (beautiful) and “typos” (impression).
Instead of a copper plate, a calotype was paper with a silver salt solution. When
placed objects on a calotype, the images were a silhouette of the objects that
were laid on the paper.
Talbot later used the idea of a camera obscura to create what we would consider
to be photographs.
Calotype began to use the camera obscura technology.
The edges of the picture look painted on- because that is how the chemicals
were applied to the paper.
1851- The Glass Negative
9. What are the characteristics of a wet plate?
A wet plate is a glass negative coated with light-sensitive silver salts. The wet plate
held more detail than paper, but it needed to be processed immediately.
Photographers had to carry a portable dark room when photographing.
1850’s- Tintypes, Cartes de visities, and Stereo Views
The Collodion Wet Plate could be used as a negative. These negatives were printed
onto cheap pieces of thin metal, or tintypes.
10. Why was the tintype important?
It made photographs less expensive and assessable to to more people.
1860’s- Realism and Fantasy
11. What were some main subjects of photographs in the 1860’s?
Newsworthy events and art.
Lincoln & Civil War
Lewis Carrol’s Inspiration for Alice and Wonderland
&
Julia Margaret Cameron’s “The Angel at the Tomb”
1870’s- Capturing Motion
12. What was a significant invention of the 1870’s?
Edward Muybridge invented a shutter. This meant that photographs were not blurry
because the negative was exposed to something moving, but they could take multiple
pictures quickly. This eventually helped create motion pictures (movies).
12 Cameras were set up in a
row, opposite the first 12
numbers on the main screen.
The shutter mechanism
was housed in separate
boxes that stood in front
of the cameras. Two
sets of sliders (in pink),
were pulled by rubber
bands that were
released when an
electric device
anchoring the slides was
triggered by the wires
on the track.
1880’s – Technological Advancements:
The Dry Plate and the Hand-Held Camera
13. Why was dried gelatin emulsion a significant invention?
The photographs did not need to be immediately processed on the spot.
14. Why was the Kodak camera important?
The camera had enough film for 100 pictures- not just one per negative as it had
been before! It became less expensive to buy and process film. The cameras were at
first like “disposable cameras” and the entire camera had to be sent in for
processing. Later, the film had a plastic base and photographers could process their
own film again.
The Turn of the Century- Pictorialism & Straight Photography
Photography continued to grow as more people experimented with it.
1920’s and 1930’s- Experimentation
15. What type of photography emerged during the 1920’s and 1930’s?
The Leica (like-ah) camera was a smaller and quicker camera, people could take
more pictures and experiment artistically as well as document social change
during the Depression. Photographs began to be used in magazines and
advertising.
1940’s and 1950’s – Photography & Publishing
16. In the 1940’s and 1950’s photography was established as a…
Communication tool. The first colored photographs also emerged in the
1940’s.
1960’s and 1970’s- Photography Comes of Age
17. What did photography become in the 1960’s & 1970’s?
An art form.