Vesa Sherifi

Hour 2

Ms. Reynor

The History of Photography Essay

Through our lifetime we go through a lot of things and as humans, we want to save some

memories and never let them fade away. We want to capture a smile, a sight, or a happy face.

Thats why photographs are more than just some shapes and colors, they keep our memories and

favorite moments safe.

Other than that, photographs have a key role in lot of professions in the fashion industry

as well as in architectural photography. They are also very useful in commercials and other

advertisements. They are proof of lot of things for public events, or to be used on a driver's

license, ID, passport, etc.

Until photography got known in the world, people used to pay a lot money for painters to

paint a portrait, which could take hours, so thats why photography was a challenge for painters

and their careers. But, somehow, photography was also inspiration for painters to start something

new, such as abstract styles (impressionism, cubism etc).

The word photography was first used by Sir John F.W Herschel in 1839, a word that is

derived from the Greek words, photos which means light and graphein which means to

draw.

If we look back, theres the camera obscura, which was developed from a simple

pinhole camera. Camera obscura in Latin means dark room, what is related to the way this
camera worked. To get an image with this device, you had to go to a dark room and punch a

small hole in the wall so the image outside would be projected in a paper inside the room. These

kind of cameras were used during the Victorian era. As well, there is speculation that some

artists, such as Vermeer, actually used camera obscura for their paintings.

However, the first permanent photograph was an image in 1826, produced by Nicephore

Niepce. It took about 8 hours for the image to expose, which led to him starting to try new

things.

After Niepce died, his friend Daguerre continued working until the development of

daguerreotype in 1839, reducing the exposure time from 8 to 6 and half hours. The

daguerreotype plate was made by brazing copper plate with silver. It was used so much, that a

Parisian newspaper started referring to a disease called Daguerro Typomania.

The Calotype was provided as an improved version of daguerreotype because calotype

negative provided the first practical method of producing prints on paper from camera exposure.

After 1851, the english photographer Frederick Scott Archer invented the collodion, which was

negative to positive process.

As time passed, while industrialization came to the 19th century, photography was proof

of success and strength. Also, photography was useful for medicine and social sciences. In

1870s, photography was used to study human and animal movement.

Until 1889, photographs were difficult to take and most of them were unique, but

everything changed when Kodak camera and the halftone printing process came. The first Kodak

camera, by George Eastman, was a box camera with a fixed-focus lens and single shutter speed.

This camera had the capability of 100 exposures and after that, needed to be reloaded with a roll.
 In 1900, Eastman took mass-market photography one step further with the Brownie, a

simple and very inexpensive box camera that introduced the concept of the snapshot. Snapshot

was a casual family scene, candid views of everyday life, and images that stopped motion midair.

As the photography improved in the first decade of the 20th century, the Lumiere

brothers of France introduced to the world photographs in reproduction, leading to new concepts

of celebrity, culture, etc.

For example, National Geographic magazine become hugely popular. Also, the fashion

photography turned some women from society women, to professional models.

In 1986, Kodak invented the first megapixel sensor which could produce a 5x7 inch

digital photo-quality print.

Today, as technology develops, high resolution cameras are even incorporated in mobile

phones.People also use applications that allow them to manipulate images, known as

photoshopping, but not always its ethical to do so, especially in photojournalism.

Cameras and photographs now are in their best form possible and as time passes by there

will be a lot of other improvements. So maybe one day well have even smaller cameras with

stronger sensors and smarter software. Maybe they will even be able to capture everything our

eyes see, almost as clear as we see them.