Photography has had a long history. It has come a very long way - from the creation of the first photograph to modern digital DSLRs and phone cameras. This short article will talk about where photography came from and how different it was from what we know today. Let's start.
It all started with a "Camera Obscura"; a detailed technique and process which involved a dark room and a small hole through which light entered the room, creating an upside down image of the outside environment. A camera obscura was just the start though, at this time no one knew how to capture long-lasting images. This is where a French man known as Joseph Nicéphore Niépce enters the scene with Heliography. It started out with him sketching on metal plates with substances such as Bitumen of Judea mixed with lavender oil.
It soon evolved and evolved into a process that would eventually give the world the earliest existing proper photograph, View from the window at Le Gras. After Niépce died, his partner Louis Daguerre built upon his work and the "Daguerreotype" process was born. This was a more advanced and more successful way to finally preserve photos. A fact to be noted is that cameras at this point in time had really long exposure times, meaning people had to stay still for a really long time.
After this, many names came along the years and built upon this, with Kodak entering the scene with the first handheld camera and the process of developing film, and then the invention of the 35mm camera by Oskar Barnack, and SLR cameras arriving on the scene around the 50s, eventually leading to the invention of fully digital cameras in the 70s. Now, this technology has evolved into DSLRs and incredibly advanced phone cameras. It is a truly remarkable evolution that all of us photographers should know about.
Thank you for checking out this article! Please look out for the next article coming out on the 21st of August, which will start talking about types of photography and will start out with talking about nature photography and my experience with it in detail.
Sites used -
Heckmann, Chris. "When Was Photography Invented — A Quick History Lesson." Studiobinder, 1 May 2022, www.studiobinder.com/blog/when-was-photography-invented/#:~:text=Photography%20was%20invented%20by%20Frenchman,dating%20back%20to%20ancient%20history. Accessed 12 Aug. 2023.
Maio, Alyssa. "When Was the Camera Invented — Dates & Inventors Explained." Studiobinder, 25 Dec. 2022, www.studiobinder.com/blog/when-was-the-camera-invented/. Accessed 12 Aug. 2023.
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