History of Photography

The Camera Obscura

Photography has come a long way since its early days. The word "photography" itself comes from the Greek words for "light" and "writing" or "drawing," which is quite fitting since it's all about capturing light to create images. The journey began in the early 19th century with the development of the camera obscura, which was essentially a darkened room with a small hole or lens at one side that projected an image onto the opposite wall. This concept has been around since ancient times, but it wasn't until the early 1800s that inventors started experimenting with capturing these images permanently.

Want to know more about camera obscura? Check out this page which explains it pretty well.

Camera Obscura. Image of a man tracing a picture of a light reflection inside a box.

Camera Obscura. Graphical ancient illustration of how the camera obscura works.

Heliography and Daguerreotypes

In 1826, French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce created the first permanent photograph using a process called heliography. He used a pewter plate coated with bitumen and exposed it to light for several hours. The result was a crude but recognizable image. Niépce's partner, Louis Daguerre, improved on this process and developed the daguerreotype in 1839. Daguerreotypes were much sharper and required shorter exposure times. They quickly became popular, and photography started to gain traction as both an art form and a means of documentation.

Image shows the first ever heliography photograph every taken. This is one of the first photos in human history. It shows a grainy image of a rooftop and it looks like something distorted and scratched onto a slab of metal or stone perhaps.

Image of the first every daguerreotype photograph. It shows some objects on a window sill. Some of them are dolls heads or maybe pieces of statues. There is also a picture handing on the wall and you can see a curtain.

Calotypes and then The Collodian Process

Around the same time, William Henry Fox Talbot in England was working on his own process called calotype, which used paper coated with silver iodide. Unlike daguerreotypes, calotypes produced a negative image that could be used to make multiple positive prints. The invention of the collodion process in the 1850s, which used glass plates instead of paper, further advanced the field by reducing exposure times and improving image quality. This wet plate process required photographers to work quickly and develop their images on-site. Have a look at the photos below, don't they still look great even today? Some photographers still use the collodian process to this day. If you want to see some fascinating collodian photographs from the American Civil War Era, then visit this MetMuseum link here.

Image showing men making photographs using the old calotype process. Above there is another image of a calotype example of a negative image of a tree and a positive image of the tree next to it.

Old yellowish orangey brown vintage photograph showing a horse-drawn wagon.

Vintage photograph showing a wooden platform ready for hanging conspirators during the American Civil War.

Vintage photograph from the Victorian days showing an elegantly dressed woman.

The Emergence of Color

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, several key developments transformed photography. George Eastman introduced roll film in the 1880s, making photography more accessible to the general public. His company, Kodak, popularized the slogan "You press the button, we do the rest," emphasizing the simplicity of using their cameras. The 20th century saw the rise of 35mm film, pioneered by Oskar Barnack at Leica, which became the standard for many years. Color photography also emerged, with the introduction of Kodachrome film in the 1930s.

Image shows vintage packaging of Kodak film from the late 1800s.

Image shows a single roll of 35mm film from the early days of photography.

Image shows some of the earliest cameras ever mass produced. They are in really good condition and their aesthetics are beautiful. These can be viewed in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Image 2 also shows some of the earliest cameras ever mass produced. They are in really good condition and their aesthetics are beautiful. These can be viewed in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

And now we live in The Digital Age

The digital revolution in the late 20th and early 21st centuries changed photography forever. Digital cameras replaced film, allowing photographers to capture images electronically and view them instantly. The advent of smartphones with built-in cameras made photography even more ubiquitous. Today, photography continues to evolve with advancements in technology, from high-resolution sensors to artificial intelligence. It's an integral part of modern life, used in everything from art and journalism to science and social media. Have a look at the below images where you can see the first mass-marketed digital cameras, the Dycam, which didn't even have a whole megapixel of resolution (the camera only had 0.1 of a megapixel). And beside the Dycam is the beautiful Kodak DCS-100, which was the first fully digital SLR camera - notice that it says Nikon on it? this is because in the early days, Kodak used the existing body of a well-respected camera and built upon it to make a fully digital version. The Kodak DCS-100 had a 1.3MP sensor. Today the newest digital cameras can have hundreds, even thousands of megapixels that can capture the finest little detail.

The Dycam camera. The first ever digital camera to be sold to customers in 1990. The company was later bought by Logitech, who continue to market and sell the Dycam. It's a beautiful and interesting looking object. It looks similar to an old mobile phone.

Image shows an old magazine advertisement from the early 1990s showing the Kodak DCS-100, the first fully digital SLR camera marketed for professionals. The camera and the electronic digital monitor adapter still look great to this day.

I wonder what the future holds...

Photography's journey from the camera obscura to digital cameras and beyond is a testament to human ingenuity and our desire to capture and preserve moments in time. It's an ever-evolving field that continues to inspire and amaze. I look in wonder at the amazing new technology being released every year, and I am fascinated by how AI computer programs can edit and manipulate photographs to make them look flawless. AI is already revolutionizing the way we live and work, and its evolution is far from over. As AI technology continues to advance, it will become even more deeply embedded in our daily routines and professional environments. From automating mundane tasks to offering personalized insights and recommendations, AI will enhance productivity, creativity, and decision-making processes. But at the same time I have this slight worry about the future of photography, and other forms of art in general. Soon it will be computers doing it all. It is truly amazing what an AI algorithm can create; the imagery it can put together, the beauty and detail. Those who remember the recent years and the not-to-distant past, will one day live in a world of nostalgia and dreaming. Meanwhile those who are from the younger generations, and future people still unborn, will have a completely different understanding and perspective on art. Unfortunately, it's likely that human artistic abilities will be dulled, dampened and eventually lost, as the future people live in a world of virtual reality.

Image created by AI showing a world depleted of creativity, where instead it is the machines that do such things.

Black and white image showing many different cameras together.