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Term / Artist
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Approximate Date
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Explanation
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Other References
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Camera Obscura
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Very early!
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This can be made by using a lightproof
room and drilling a small opening through an outside wall. If the wall
opposite is painted white an upside down, slightly blurred image of the
outside will appear. There is one at Greenwich Observatory. A pin hole
camera is a very effective version of a camera obscura.
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Wikipedia
|
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Schulze
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1727
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Professor J. Schulze mixes chalk,
nitric acid, and silver in a flask; notices darkening on side of flask
exposed to sunlight. Accidental creation of the first photo-sensitive
compound.
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|
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Thomas Wedgwood
|
1800
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makes "sun pictures" by placing opaque
objects on leather treated with silver nitrate. The resulting images
deteriorated rapidly, however, if displayed under light stronger than
from candles as he did not know how to remove the sensitive silver
compounds - i.e. fixing them. Ironically, the chemistry to do this was
actually well known.
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|
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Niepce, Joseph Nicephore
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1828
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In 1827 a Frenchman, Joseph Niépce,
took the first "picture". He put a metal plate covered with a chemical
called bitumen into a camera box. The bitumen got hard on the parts of
the plate exposed to the sun. When the plate was washed with petroleum
oil, a permanent picture remained. It took Niépce eight hours to expose
his photograph!
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Niepce
Balcony
Wikipedia
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Daguerre, Jean Louis Mande
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1838
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In 1838 Louis Jaques Daguerre built on
Niépce's work; however his process was a lot faster and used silver
iodide as the sensitive substance.
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Daguerre
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Daguerrotype
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1838
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"Daguerreotypes" were made on
sensitized metal plates placed in the camera. Exposure times were
eventually about 30 seconds on a bright day. (In portrait studios, the
subject was usually clamped into position!) The plate was later
developed in mercury vapour, a potentially deadly process. The result
image was very easily damaged and it could not be copied. The process
lasted until 1851 when the Wet Plate was invented.
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Earliest
Camera
Shoe_Cleaner
Wikipedia
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Fox Talbot, Henry
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1838
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In England, William Talbot also
experimented with the new art of photography. But he was going about
things a bit differently. Instead of making positives on metal plates,
Talbot made negatives on paper. While Talbot's pictures were not as
clear as Daguerre's, they were reproducible. Talbot's originals were
called "negatives" (the area most exposed to the light was the
darkest); the pictures made from them were called "positives" (the area
most exposed to the light was the brightest). The final picture was
called a "Calotype" (meaning beautiful picture).
Fox Talbot published the first book of photographs called "Pencil of
Nature"
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Wikipedia
Fox Talbot
Barn from
Pencil of Nature
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Calotype
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1838
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The calotype was made by dipping
writing paper into a solution of silver nitrate. It was allowed to dry
out, then soaked in potassium iodide solution, forming light sensitive
silver iodide, and dried. It was exposed using a primitive camera, and
eventually they were developed using gallic acid. The dried
negative was then contact printed onto another sheet of sensitized
paper using a frame which was exposed to sunlight. At first "fixed" in
brine (strong salt) this was not very effective and eventually the
negative and print were fixed in proper fixer.
Exposure times were eventually about 30 seconds on a bright day.
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Example
Wikipedia
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Scott Archer, Frederick
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1851
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Archer invented the wet collodion or
wet plate system in 1851. His method, despite its cumbersome and
difficult process, rapidly displaced the calotype and the daguerrotype
because of its vcastly superior image qualities.
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Scott
Archer
|
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Wet Collodion Process
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1851
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The Wet Plate was produced by
dissolving silver nitrate in collodion and then pouring it over a glass
plate. It was then dipped into potassium iodide solution. It was
quickly placed into the cameras, exposed and then returned to the
darkroom for exposure - all before the plate dried out! As a result
photographers had to take their darkrooms with them.
|
current
use!
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
general
|
|
Carte-de-Visite
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1854
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The visiting card was invented in 1854
by Adolphe Disderi. He made a camrea with several lenses and a single
negative glass plate. The subject could do several poses, each being
recorded into a different position. These cards led to a craze for
collecting them throughout Europe
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carte-de-visite
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Ambrotype
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1855
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Direct prints made onto glass. They
worked by being grossly underexposed and at an angle to light they
turned into a positive image
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Lincoln
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Tintype
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1855
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Similar to ambrotypes, but made onto
thin sheets of tin.
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Cowboys
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"High Art" Photography
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1860s
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Started as a response to criticism
that photography could not be art, photographers such as H.P. Robinson,
Oscar Rejlander began to produce photographs in their studios - like
artists - with carefully planned and constructed images, often using
several negatives.
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Rejlander
Robinson
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American Civil War (Matthew Brady)
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1861 - 1865
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Mathew Brady and a large staff covered
the American Civil War, exposing 7000 negatives. Brady took very few
himself. He planned on making a fortune out of the photos after the
war, but died penniless.
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Gettysburg
Brady
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American West
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1870s
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Centre of the period in which the US
Congress sent photographers out to the West. The most famous images
were taken by William Jackson and Tim O'Sullivan.
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Jackson O'Sullivan
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Richard Leach Maddox
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1871
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It was the invention of the gelatine
dry plate in 1871
by Richard Leach Maddox that ousted wet plates in speed and quality. It
was however no adopted until the "curing process" was found - heating
the plates to around 800C that the dry plate became a
commercial proposition
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|
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Edweard Muybridge
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1877
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Using a series of cameras triggered by
string, he photographed a horse galloping against a white wall. He
found that horses hooves do all leave the ground at some point.
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Galloping
Muybridge
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Dry Plate Process
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1878
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The advantages of the dry plate were
obvious: photographers could use commercial dry plates off the shelf
instead of having to prepare their own emulsions in a mobile darkroom.
Also, for the first time, cameras could be made small enough to be
hand-held, or even concealed. There was a proliferation of various
designs, from single- and twin-lens reflexes to large and bulky field
cameras, handheld cameras, and even cameras disguised as pocket
watches, hats,
or other objects.The shortened exposure times that made candid
photography possible also necessitated another innovation, the
mechanical shutter. The first shutters were
separate accessories, though built-in shutters were common by the turn
of the century.
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Camera
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Naturalist Photography
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1880s
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As a reaction against the artificial
nature of much of photography, artists like Peter Emerson began to
photograph outdoors simple images of the countryside and its lifestyle.
He and others often employed a soft-focus effect to take the edge off
the sharpness of the prints.
There was a similar art movement (Millais) at the same time.
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Background
Emerson
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George Eastman
|
1884
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George Eastman, age 24, set
up Eastman Dry Plate Company in Rochester, New York. He realised that a
plastic film base would be much more efficient and experimented using
the latest material, celluloid nitrate. however his first ever camera
was to use a paper based film.
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Eastman
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Kodak
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1884
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The first Kodak camera was marketed.
It contained a 20-foot roll of paper, enough for 100 2.5-inch diameter
circular pictures. Slogan - "You pull the trigger, we do the rest!" The
camera was sent back to Kodak for developing and processing, and
reloaded and returned to the owner. Snapshot term coined for quick
shooting of photos.
In 1889 Eastman replaced the paper film with celluloid, and
photographic film was born.
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Advert
Advert
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Jacob Riis
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1890
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Publishes "How the Other Half Lives",
photographs of slums and tenament life in New York, including
gangsters. He pioneered the use of flash, using magnesium metal wire
and powder - extremely dangerous!
|
images/Riis.jpg
Riis-2
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Linked Ring
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1892
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In May 1892, Henry Peach Robinson
founded the Linked Ring, an invitation only group of photographers
based in London, pledged to enhance photography as a fine art. Famous
members included Frank Sutcliffe, Frederick Evans, Paul Martin, and
Alfred Stieglitz.
Serious photographers were now probably trying to distance themselves
from the growth of photography for all, brought about by the
introduction of simple cameras e.g. Kodak Brownie. The idea that anyone
could press a button and take a photograph caused the more dedicated to
look for new techniques which the "snap photographers" would think
of.
|
Robert
Leggatt
and the
BBC
Robinson
|
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Kodak Box Brownie
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1900
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Kodak Brownie box roll-film camera
introduced. This was a camera without any controls at all. Fixed focus
and fixed exposure! I have still got one.
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Box
Brownie
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Alfred Stieglitz
|
1902
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Starts the Photo-Secessionist
movement and their first show in New York. Stieglitz later went
on to found the famous photography and Art magazine "Camera Works".
Stieglitz was a very influential photographer, going through a variety
of styles.
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Self-portrait
5th_Avenue
Steerage
Torso
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Photo-Secessionist Movement
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1902-1917
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With a membership of carefully
selected pictorial photographers, the society often produced the best
and most original photography produced in the United States and abroad.
Stieglitz began to introduce Modern Art to the unaware American Public
alongside the members' photographs
|
Description
|
|
Panchromatic B&W Film
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1906
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Originally film could only record blue
light, leading to empty skies and very deep toned lips. Eventually
orthochromatic film appeared, which was sensitive to blue and orange
light and finally panchromatic film which is sensitive to all the
colours. This was done by incorporating different dyes into the
emulsion. This would lead to the first proper amateur colour films.
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|
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Autochrome
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1907
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The first ever colour film,
manufactured in France by the Lumiere brothers. Note in the example the
dyed starch screen which separated out the light into the 3 different
colours.
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autochrome
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Lewis Hine
|
1909
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Hired by the US National Child Labor
Committee to get photos of children working in mills. The abuse of
children by the cotton industry was horrendous, as they often worked
for up to 16 hours a day. Many of his photos were obtained secretly
because of the fear of the mill owners.
|
Hine-1
Hine-2
Hine-3
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Oskar Barnack
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1914
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Barnack worked for the Leitz Optical
company in Germany. He realised that the off-cuts of Hollywood cine
film would make excellent material for a camera. He took about 10 years
to develop this idea.
|
Barnack
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Dadaism
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1916-18
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An art movement which arose out of the
1914-18 great war. It actually opposed the concept of art and
aesthetics and beauty. It was not just revolutionary but a sort of art
anarchy. It stimulated the appearance of Surrealism.
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DuChamp
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Surrealism
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1920s
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See Critical Glossary
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Surrealism
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Man Ray
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1921
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Man Ray moved to Paris and began a
career as a surrealist photographer. He invented "rayograms"
(photograms) and solarised prints.
|
Rayogram
Solarised
Portrait
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Leica
|
1924
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Leitz marketed a derivative of
Barnack's camera commercially as the "Leica", the first high quality
35mm camera. (Leica = LEI[tz]CA[mera]), The camera is
still today regarded as just about the best 35mm camera in the world.
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Leica-1
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Renger-Patzsch, Albert
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1927
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Published "The World is Beautiful"
containing carefully lit close-ups of natural and man-made objects
deliberately isolated, emphasising their form and strucutre
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Patzsch-1
Patzsch-2
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Group f64
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1932
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Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham,
Willard Van Dyke, Edward Weston, et al, form Group f/64 dedicated to
"straight photographic thought and production"
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adams_moonrise
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Cartier-Bresson, Henri
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1932
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Buys a Leica and begins a 60-year
career photographing people. He later coined the phrase "The Decisive
Moment" the point at which all the formal elements in a scene are
correct.
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Kiss
Jump
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Farm Security Administration
(Lange, Walker Evans)
|
1935
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FSA hires Roy Stryker to run a
historical section. Stryker would hire Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange,
Arthur Rothstein, et al. to photograph rural hardships over the next
six years.
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Lange
Walker Evans
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Kodachrome
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1936
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Was the first color multi-layered
color film and a genuine revolution. Although only 12 ASA it was to
remain the same basic film (apart from improvements in sensitivity)
until its ending at the end of the 20th century.
Also the development of modern type multi-layered colour negative films.
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Original
package
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Exakta
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1936
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The first 35mm Single Lens Reflex, a
type which was to dominate the professional market, and still does!
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1937
Exacta
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Magnum
|
1947
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Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa,
and David Seymour start the photographer-owned Magnum picture agency.
Very well worth a look
|
Magnum Home Page
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Family of Man Exhibition
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1955
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Edward Steichen curates Family of Man
exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art
|
Book
Cover
|
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Robert Frank
|
1958
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The Americans. Frank turned American
Photography on its head with his brutal revelation of America's reality
of ordinary people, poor, run-down areas etc. He also later
visited England with his "frank" photography. This marked the turn away
from modernism to almost brutal realism
|
In Wales
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Polaroid
|
1963
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Dr. Land invented and marketed the
Polaroid camera, which produced instant photographs - the system worked
on a negative positive basis and had all the chemicals needed inside
the "film". These were to be used by David Hockney in his "Joiners"
concept.
|
First
type
|
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Autofocus
|
1977
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The first autofocus camera was a
"compact" 35mm the Konica C35AF.
|
Konica
AF
|
|
Cindy Sherman
|
1977
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Cindy begins to take her first series
of "Untitled Film Stills". This series of photographs form part of an
increasing number of women taking photographs as part of a feminist
movement.
|
Sherman
Gallery Sample Photo
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|
Sony Mavica
|
1982
|
Sony introduce the fore-runner of the
digital camera, the Mavica. This was to be the first in the latest and
current revolution in the taking of images. Today, the sale of film
cameras is still sinking steadily and film is likely to become a purely
enthusiast's interest..
|
images/Sony-Mavica-M.jpg
Canon A620
|
|
Adobe Photoshop
|
1990 approx
|
The most powerful software for
processing photographs! Now in its CS2 edition (version 9). The first
edition was sold exclusively for Apple Macintosh computers which
explains the overwhelming fascination for Mac computers for
photographers and designers!
It was written by 2 brothers, Thomas and John Knoll. The latter had
been stimulated by working on the first Star Wars film. It is now the
work of a team of over 40 programmers.
|
Computer
Arts
|
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First Digital Camera
|
1991
|
Kodak introduced the first commercial,
professional digital camera the DCS. It was basically a Nikon SLR, with
a 1.3 MP sensor instead of film. It sold for about £12000! By 1995 it
had been upgraded to 6 MP
|
Digital
history and also Digicam
History
Early Kodak DCS
|
