History of Photography Marisa Haitsma

Photos (light)

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Graphein (to draw)

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“Photography”

Originally used for drawing and entertaining.

Projects an image of its surroundings on a screen.

First cameras: “Camera obscuras”

1727: Johann Heinrich Schulze discovered that silver nitrate darkened when exposed to light by mixing chalk, nitric acid, and silver in a flask.

1814: Joseph Nicéphore Niépce combines the camera obscura with photosensitive paper to create the first picture ever. Eight hour exposure and eventually, faded.

1826: Joseph Nicéphore Niépce combines the camera obscura with photosensitive

paper to create the first permanent picture.

1834: Henry Fox Talbot invented the first negative from which multiple positive prints could be made.

1837: Louis Daguerre’s first “daguerreotype”. Did not fade and needed less than 30 minutes

for light exposure.

1841: Talbot invented the “calotype” process, which means “beautiful picture” in Greek, by using a silver salt solution.

1851: Frederick Scott Archer invented the “Collodion” process which only requires two to three seconds of light exposure.

1856: Hamilton Smith patented “tintypes”, which used a thin sheet of iron as a base for the light sensitive material. Three million made by

mid 1800’s.

1871: Richard Leach Maddox, an English doctor, invented the gelatin dry plate silver bromide process. No longer did negatives have to be developed right away.

1880: George Eastman founded Eastman Dry Plate Company in Rochester, New York. First half-tone photograph appears in a daily newspaper, the New York Graphic.

1888: Eastman patents first Kodak roll-film camera.

1889: Eastman invented film with a flexible base that could be rolled.

1900: First mass-marketed camera – the Brownie.

1914: Oskar Barnack developed the first 35mm (“candid”) film camera.

1917: Nippon Kōgaku Kōgyō Kabushikigaisha, which will eventually become “Nikon Corporation”, is established in Tokyo.

1932: First light meter with photoelectric cell introduced.

1948: Edwin Land invented the Polaroid camera.

1960: EG&G comes up with an extreme depth underwater camera for U.S. Navy.

1963: First color instant film

developed by Polaroid.

1968: Photo of the year: the

Earth.

1978: Konica introduces first point-and-shoot, autofocus camera.

1978: Sony introduces the first consumer camcorder. Before, it was used only commercially.

1985: Minolta markets the world's first autofocus SLR system (called "Maxxum" in the US)

1990: A favorite! Adobe Photoshop is released.

1999: Nikon D1 SLR, 2.74 megapixels for sale for $6000, first DSLR designed by a leading manufacturer.

2000: Camera phone introduced in Japan by Sharp/J-phone.

2004: Kodak ceases production of film cameras. The film era decreases rapidly.

Today: Open access and no constraints! Look how far we’ve come and who knows what the future will hold!