history of photography...

1. ,yNahyh fy;Y}hp
Newpahsu;
Nguh.rhk;;rd; Jiu
rku;gpg;gtu;
tp[aFkhu;
15-pma-04

2. ed;wp
tpf;fpgPbah
Nguh.MNuhf;fpauh[;

3. History of Photography
What is photography
Photography, which means literally “writing with
light”,gives us the means to record and examine our day-
to-day activities and experiences. Unlike the casual glance,
which often “sees” only the major elements of a scene, a
photograph records the tiniest of details. It then allows us
time to study and understand each minute element. A
photograph preserves what memory cannot.

4. Early Study of Light

6. Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher, first described the formation
of a crude optical image in about 350 B.C. He observed that when a
beam of light was allowed to enter a darkened room through a small
hole an image was formed. By holding a piece of paper six inches or
so from the opening he was able to capture the image. Though
blurred and upside down the image was recognizable.
Leonardo DaVinci, early in the sixteenth century, diagrammed in his
famous Notebooks the workings of a camera, complete with
instructions on how to use it.

7. The phenomenon that Aristotle described and DaVinci
illustrated became known as the camera obscura. This term,
meaning “dark room”, was introduced by the Italians, whose
painters were among the first to make practical use of
Aristotle’s discovery. In the early 1500s Italian painters used
the camera obscura to improve proportion and perspective in
their paintings.
During the next two hundred years many improvements were
made in the basic camera obscura. A glass lens that greatly
sharpened the image eventually replaced the somple opening,
the camera was made smaller and more portable, and mirrors
were added so that the image was projected in an upright
position.

8. During the 1700s, several people were experimenting
with chemicals that were sensitive to light. The biggest
challenge facing photographers was to find a fixing agent
that would make the images permanent.

9. Julia Margaret Cameron
Cameron, one of the most remarkable amateur photographers
of all time, started work in the 1860s on what she considered a
“divine art”. In her photographs she attempted to record “the
greatness of the inner as well as the features of the outer
man.” She pioneered in the use of close-up techniques, large
plates, and unusual lighting. She used an enormous lens and
demanded that her subjects sit frozen for exposures lasting five
to seven minutes. Her portrait subjects included the great, and
the not so great of the period.

10. George Eastman
Though there are several others who contributed to the progress of
modern photography along our history of photography timeline, the next
big contribution was made by George Eastman. He began as an
amateur photographer in 1877. Within twenty years he controlled the
largest photographic manufacturing company in the world. Can you
venture a guess at the company’s name? Introduced in 1888, the Kodak
No.1, Eastman’s simple box camera was the first camera to use roll
film instead of plates or sheets.
The camera appealed to the masses of amateur photographers
because it was small (6 ½ inches x 3 ½ inches x 3 ½ inches)
and simple to operate. The advertising slogan “You press the button,
we do the rest” indicated that anyone who could press the button
could get a good picture. Eastman chose the name Kodak because the
word mimicked the sound the shutter made and was easily pronounced
throughout the world.

11. The camera came loaded with enough
film for one hundred pictures and cost
twenty-five dollars. When the one
hundred pictures had been taken, the
photographer mailed the camera to the
Eastman plant in Rochester , NY. The film
was then processed, prints were made,
the camera was reloaded with film, and
the pictures and camera were returned to
the owner. Total cost for the prints and
new film was ten dollars.

12. In the 1890s, following on the heels of Kodak, a host of
manufacturers attempted to complete in the vast amateur
photography marketplace. The folding bellows camera, the twin-
lens reflex camera, and the “nodark” – a camerathat processed its
own film- appealed to beginners throughout the world. Small
cameras became even more popular with Dr. Paul Rudolph’s
invention of a precision lens – the Zeiss Tessar.

13. Harold Edgerton’s electronic flash ushered photography into an era of ultra-
high speed, with shutter exposures of less than 1/50,000
of a second. Edgerton’s photographs have shown us a drop of milk hitting a
plate, a bullet passing through a light bulb, and a hummingbird resting on
air.

14. After World War II, amateur photography experienced another boom period.
Renewed interest was in large part due to the advent of the Kodak Brownie
instamatic cameras and the 1947 invention of the Polaroid Land Camera (a camera
that bore the name of it’s inventor, Edwin Land). The revolutionary new Polaroid
produced a positive print in sixty seconds, because both the negative and the positive
images were developed simultaneously. Despite harsh critics who said the Polaroid
could not possibly last, it has endured to become a photographic mainstay among
amateurs, as well as being used by many professionals in many different media
related fields. In 2008 Polaroid stopped production of it’s instant photography line,
but in 2009, back by popular demand, the company announced that Polaroid would
soon be available once again.
Finally now we’re use selfie photography