Notes on History of Photography

This post is concerning the previous post below.

To me, this is a great informative video showing the development (not meant as a pun, but could be taken as one) of the subject photography and how much a revelation it was to the public; a frozen section in time, frozen forever for them to take out and remember, to look into the past.

As announced in the video, we've had photography round for over 170 years, this ingenious invention provoke thought, love and outrage from us over the years, playing to journalists and specific members of society, uniting and dividing us for that many years.

Invented in 1839, Photography has been able to show us secret strangers behind appearances, that things are not always as they seem. You can force the viewers eye onto a certain section, make them witness things and out off other things.

Photography was used to capture life in London, everyone was in disbelieve when it was first invented and shown to the public, they just though photographs were brilliant paintings; unable to comprehend this ability to, in a manner of speaking, literally freeze a moment in time, capturing everything in the view of the finder and trapping it in place.

Before a proper camera developed, people were only able to experience momentary photographs, this was in 1802. It work from chemicals effected by light, but eventually the image faded into black and scientists had to adjust the chemicals.

They experimented with paper and shoe box sized cameras, called 'mousetraps'. It was Talbert who was able to save images onto paper, they were in negative, but the concept was still a major break-through and deemed successful; he had managed to save a photo and make it last on paper.

It was a french rival, Louis Daguerre who discovered his own solution to the shadows, instead of paper though he instead used mirrored metal plates (silver grains) but if you didn't use a blow torch the image would be easily wiped off, so there were still issues.

Of course, already, these simplistic cameras are majorly advanced in comparison to the first ever camera, a pin-hole camera which showed you an upside down image of the world.

The people of London were amazed at how quickly, cheaply and accurately they were able to photograph the world, but they were still deciding whose process was better, Talberts or his french rivals. This was a pivoting point for photography, the world was changing, there was the industrial revolution coinciding with the growth of photography and cameras, which changed how people understood the world, illuminating the story behind the images, and provoking curiosity into what they would usually bypass in everyday routine.

The world was becoming modern.

Factories, lots of paper and chemicals; it was a busy time in our past. And a time we were able to capture and record forever; through photography.