The History of Photography: The Inmortal Story

717 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: An Essay On The History Of Photography

There is only one way to make people immortal. Photography is the process in which one writes with light. Photographs are permanent images of people or things. Photography wasn't always as easy as a click of a button and there you go. It took an immense amount of work to get to the modern day camera. Photography started from experiments made by people to create new ways to communicate through creating permanency in photographs, making prints of photographs and advancing to the modern day camera. Small ideas grew into large projects. Trial and error evolved into what we have today.
Photographs were permanently created using several techniques from different photographers. Joseph Nicephore Niepce made the first photographic image with a camera obscura. Joseph Nicephore Niepce's heliographs or sun prints as they were called were the prototype for the modern photograph, by letting light draw the picture. Niepce placed an engraving onto a metal plate coated in bitumen, and then exposed it to light. (About.com). Niepce's photograph required eight hours of light exposure to create and after appearing would soon fade away. Together, Niépce and Louis Daguerre refined the bitumen process, using a more sensitive resin and a different post-exposure treatment and more easily viewed images. Exposure times in the camera were still measured in hours. Daguerre developed an easier and more effective method of photography, naming it after himself (the daguerreotype). Daguerre's process put the images onto a sheet of silver-plated copper. He polished the silver and coated it in iodine, creating a surface that was sensitive to light. This process created a lasting image, one that would not change if exposed to light. These photographers helped advan...

... middle of paper ...

... the camera, processed, and printed. The camera was then reloaded with film and returned.
Photography started from people trying to communicate in other ways than words. Photography started from permanency in photographs, photographic prints and advancements in modern day cameras. Without photography we would have no proof of the real events going on in the world. Life would be all based on the word of man, which can easily be misinterpreted. Photography is always advancing with the fastness of the technology in our society.

Works Cited

"History of Photography and the Camera." About.com Inventors. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
"History of Photography." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 May 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
"Photography Films and Prints." About.com Inventors. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.
"The Camera." About.com Inventors. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2013

Show More
Related

  • Photography: Annotated Bibliography

    2461 Words  | 5 Pages

    Practiced by thousands who shared no common tradition or training from the earliest days of taking photos, the first photographers were disciplined and united by no academy or guild, who considered their medium variously as a trade, a science, an art, or an entertainment, and who often were unaware of each other’s work. Exactly as it sounds photography means photo-graphing. The word photography comes from two Greek words, photo, or “light”, and graphos, or drawing and from the start of photography; the history of the aforementioned has been debated. The idea of taking pictures started some thirty-one thousand years ago when strikingly sophisticated images of bears, rhinoceroses, bison, horses and many other types of creators were painted on the walls of caves found in southern France. Former director of photography at New Yorks museum of modern art says that “The progress of photography has been more like the history of farming, with a continual stream of small discoveries leading to bigger ones, and in turn triggering more experiments, inventions, and applications while the daily work goes along uninterrupted.” ˡ

    Read More

  • Photographers of the Old West

    3645 Words  | 8 Pages

    The first type of using light to make a picture was the daguerreotype. Both Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre and Nicephore Niepce, who passed away before the public was introduced to the daguerreotype, founded this type of picture taking. However, before this Louis Daguerre made a "theater without actors." Beaumont Newhall explains that this was an illusion made by extraordinary lighting effects that made the 45 ½ foot by 71 ½ foot pictures appear to change as one looked at them (2).

    Read More

  • How Did Thomas Wedgewood Made The Louis Daguerre

    206 Words  | 1 Pages

    Question 2: Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre made the Louis Daguerre in 1838, which was made with a camera obscura but had no color in it. The Daguerreotype manuals went around the world a year later and begin studies on the process. Historical it was the first photograph and changed the art world view on images because it was just so perfectly designed.

    Read More

  • Louis Daguerre: Inventor of the First Commericially Successful Type of Photography

    956 Words  | 2 Pages

    Also known as a previous commercial artist, Louis Daguerre invented the ability for cameras to capture fleeting images accurately . Louis Daguerre was born in November 18, 1787, in Cormeilles, France. His first job wasn’t a photographer, but it was Daguerre’s first step in getting attracted by the way lighting and reproducing accurate scenes work. Daguerre wasn’t a photographer, or an inventor from the beginning of his life. “By 1825, Daguerre was a successful commercial artist in Paris; creator, proprietor, and promoter of a giant illusionistic theater called the Diorama” (Nelson). The Diorama is a spectacle featuring theatrical paintings and lighting effects, along with huge paintings (Daniel). Daguerre was able to simulate various scenes by illustrating accurate reproductions (Nelson). “He knew the camera obscura and used it to make sketches from nature for creating an illusion of reality in his Diorama” (“History of Photography: Daguerre Pictures”). Through his prior knowledge for cameras, Daguerre was able to create the Diorama then go further into the world of photography. Louis Daguerre, known as one of the father of photography, influences many photographers with his daguerreotype, even today.

    Read More

  • Victorian's Secret: Sexual Revelations

    2682 Words  | 6 Pages

    Photography developed as an art form primarily in the mid to late 19 th century, partially as an alternative to lengthy sittings for a painted portrait. As a result, many of the early photographs were formal, posed still portraits. Some view...

    Read More

  • Theory Of Photography Essay

    1587 Words  | 4 Pages

    The first models of the Camera Obscura were large chambers that could be entered by the artist. At first, this invention was recognized as an aid to artists who could trace the images to create a more realistic impression of the scene. The difficulty with the chamber was that it was not readily portable, and was therefore useless to an artist. This issue was solved when advancements were made in the seventeenth century when inventors developed a portable version of the optical device. Also, those using the instrument found that the image produced was inaccurate in that it defied the rules of perspective because it was formed by a single lens. Inventors discovered a way to correct this problem, as explained in the History of Photography:

    Read More

  • The Evolution of Photography

    1074 Words  | 3 Pages

    The idea for photographing came around in 1814 when Joseph Niépce wanted an image of his son before he left for war. He succeeded in making the first camera in 1827, but the camera needed at least eight hours to produce one picture. Parisian Louis Daguerre invented the next kind of camera in 1839, who worked with Niépce for four years. His camera only needed fifteen to thirty minutes to produce a picture. Both Niécpe’s and Daguerre’s cameras made pictues on metal plates. In the same year Daguerre made his camera, an Englishman by the name of William Henry Fox Talbot made the first camera that photographed pictures on paper. The camera printed a reverse picture onto a negative and chemicals were needed to produce the photo up right. In 1861, color film came along and pictures were produced with color instead of being just black and white. James Clerk Maxwell is credited with coming up with color film, after he took the ...

    Read More

  • History of Photojournalism

    899 Words  | 2 Pages

    “I have been a witness, and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated” (Nachtwey). Photojournalism is the art or practice of communicating news by photographs, especially in magazines. Photojournalism has evolved immensely from the beginning to the present. Photojournalism developed during the Crimean War, submitted to its evolution throughout the course of the Golden Age, and eventually settled on its present-day existence today.

    Read More

  • The Power of Photography

    861 Words  | 2 Pages

    Have you ever seen a painting or picture that captivates you and directly stirs up emotion within you? More than likely, you have. Usually, viewers merely observe the picture and enjoy the way it looks and how it makes them feel. But, have you ever asked yourself, “why?” What about the picture makes it pleasing to the viewer? With each strategy the photographer uses creates their own touch and passion that floods all over the picture. The emotional connection nearly goes unnoticed for when the picture is well photographed, the viewers experience the sensation in their subconscious. This is one of the most powerful tools that a photographer holds in their hands. If one can become a master of manipulating how the photo affects its viewers, the said photographer can potentially maneuver people’s minds and thoughts with one click of a button. The time spent with my mentor has opened up the door for me to tap into that power though the use of background, focus, shutter speed, angles, and most importantly, lighting. Even with all these techniques, the person behind the camera must remember that creativity must be at the forefront of all operations. Caleno (2014), when writing about the basics of capturing a beautiful moment in a picture commented, “If we want to be creative we must drop these pre-conceptions and start looking at things from a small child’s innocence.”

    Read More

  • Cameras and Photography

    5009 Words  | 11 Pages

    Photography has an amazing process, no matter if you are using a film camera, or a digital camera. The principle of the camera is that light passes through a small hole, projects an image from the brighter side of the opening to a surface on the dimmer side. The process of making photos, or durable images, is by recording light. Or, it can be created by making images from other electromagnetic radiations. Photography has two ways of capturing photos. It can be made chemically, with a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. Although it could be done electronically by the use of an image sensor. The lens is used to focus the light that is reflected from objects into a real image on a light-sensitive surface inside a camera, during a timed exposure...

    Read More

  • Photography: A False Lens on Reality

    696 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Sontag’s On Photography, she claims photography limits our understanding of the world. Though Sontag acknowledges “photographs fill in blanks in our mental pictures”, she believes “the camera’s rendering of reality must always hide more than it discloses.” She argues photographs offer merely “a semblance of knowledge” on the real world.

    Read More

  • Essay On Camera History

    1047 Words  | 3 Pages

    Evolution of more than just a Camera? Cameras have documented many events in history that refuse to be forgotten. Some pictures capture life in a different time and captivate us into a moment that seems far away and perhaps mystical. Images can be found from WWI, WWI, and even as far back as the civil war. Not only are the horrors of war captured, but many other memorable moments as well. Many famous moments in celebrity history have also been caught on film, and leaders of our nation have also shared the same

    Read More

  • The History of Photography

    1831 Words  | 4 Pages

    In almost all areas, photography is used. From 1827-2014, it is still present and still being enhanced. From film photographs to digital photographs, camera companies today keep improving their cameras. They keep enhancing their cameras to produce better quality and resolution for photographs. Even non-professional photographers today buy and use their own camera to take their own photographs. Even cellphones today have their own built-in cameras.

    Read More

  • Photography As A Career Essay: My Dream Career

    950 Words  | 2 Pages

    There was a time when the only way to capture a moment or surrounding was by a painting. Joseph Nicephore Niepce created the first photograph ever in 1827. Photography went thru many beneficial changes since then only improving and

    Read More

  • A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

    739 Words  | 2 Pages

    Photography is relatively simple in comparison to painting, which is a much more complex task. With photography, the composition is already completely arranged, but with a painting the objective is much more open to interpretation by the artist. The artist has the ability to capture much more emotion, understanding, and significance in an event and apply this fiery drive to his paintbrush when creating his own masterpiece.

    Read More

More about The History of Photography: The Inmortal Story

Open Document