Photography: The History and Everyday Use

“Art is not to be found by touring to Egypt, China, or Peru; if you cannot find it at your own door, you will never find it.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson . Although many might think that it is a waste of time and money, photography is a great hobby that people should try. However, even if someone has different opinions, they must consider that photography is steadily on its way to becoming a worldwide everyday use, and is already part of the American culture. Who has contributed to the making of the modern camera in earlier times?

In ancient times, at approximately 5th century B.C., the beginning of the camera was the use of a camera obscura, Greek meaning “Dark room.” A camera obscura is a dark room that has a small hole in a wall or other covered opening, and through that opening comes light that shows the outside world in an upside-down fashion. The first recorded use of a camera obscura was by the Chinese philosopher named Mo-Ti, who recorded using a pinhole in a wall of a dark room to create the image. He personally called the room a “collecting place,” and a “locked treasure room.” The camera obscura was used for many years; the foundation of the camera did not change much, until about the sixteenth century .

In the 1500’s, Giovanni Battista Della Porta was said to develop a better form of the camera obscura by adding a convex lens to make the image clearer and have better quality, and later, a mirror to view the image down upon a flat viewing surface. In his book, Magiae Naturalis, written in 1558, Giovanni recommended this variation of the device to artists, as it could be used as an aid for drawing subjects or scenery . Although used for numerous years, the device had never been truly named until the early 17th century, whe...

... middle of paper ...

...s could never describe. Those messages can help make the world a better place, if used in the right place and the right time.

Works Cited

Wilgus, Jack and Beverly. “The Magic Mirror of Life: an appreciation of the camera obscura.” http://brightbytes.com/cosite/what.html. (accessed March 5, 2010).

Unknown, Author. “PhotoQuotes.com.” http://www.photoquotes.com/showquotes.aspx?id=375&name=Emerson,Ralph (accessed March 13, 2010)

Unknown, Author. “Photo.net.” 1996. http://photo.net/history/timeline (accessed Apr. 30, 2010).

Multiple Authors. the oxford companion to the photograph. Edited by Robin Lenman, Sylvie Aubenas, Quentin Bajac, Jane Carmichael, Elizabeth Edwards, John Falconer, Mark Haworth-Booth, et al. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005.

Grimm, Tom and Michele Grimm. The Basic Book Of Photography. New York, NY: Penguin Group, 1997.