History of Photography

Photography was created by the method of recording the image of an object by using light on light sensitive material, in 1827 by Joseph Nicephore Niepce with a pinhole camera. The birth of modern photography is credited to Louis Daguerre who formed a partnership with Joseph Niepce 1829 and developed both of their theory's further. In 1839, Louis Daguerre developed the daguerreotype. This process fixed the images onto silver-plated copper, then polished it with silver and coated it with iodine, creating a surface that was sensitive to light. The plate was put in a camera and left it to expose for 7 minutes, while the image was painted by light. After the image was exposed, it was coated in a silver chloride solution which kept the image from disappearing.

 

Following the daguerreotype, was the negative to positive process, invented by Henry Fox Talbot. Talbot sensitized the paper to light using a silver salt solution. After exposing the paper to light, the background became black and the subject was exposed in tones of gray. This created a negative image, Talbot then reversed the light and shadows creating an image, this process later became known as the calotype.

In 1851, Frederick Scoff Archer, invented the wet plate negative, by coating glass with silver salts, by using glass he created a more stable and detailed image.
 
In 1879, the dry plate was invented, a glass negative plate with a dried gelatin emulsion. It made hand-held cameras possible by eliminating the need for a portable darkroom and photographers would hire technicians to develop the photos. The dry plate also made it possible for the photos to be stored for longer periods of time.


10 years later, George Eastman invents the first rolls of film. He created a base that was flexible, but at the same time also unbreakable, and it could also be rolled. Emulsions coated on a cellulose nitrate film base, made the box camera a reality.



Later, in the early 40's, commercially viable colored films were brought to the market. They used the modern technology of dye-coupled colors, and a chemical process which resulted in a connecting of the 3 dye colors, giving an image apparent color.

Following the invention of colored film, was the iconic polaroid camera, developed by Edwin Herbert Land. The first polaroid camera sold to the public was bought in November 1948.



In 1984, Canon developed the first digital film still camera, followed by the first disposable camera from Fuji in 1986.



It is thought that by 2060, there will be photo-taking goggles, that capture a photo in a blink of an eye. With 3D imaging, it wouldn't matter how you captured your subject, you could just simply rotate them in your surround-vision display during the editing process. With today's technology, there's really no limit as to how today's photography will continue to evolve in the future.