Photography. An art form invented in 1830s, becoming publicly
recognised ten years later.
Today, photography is the largest growing
hobby in the world, with the hardware alone creating a multi-billion
dollar industry. Not everyone knows what camera obscura or even shutter speed is, nor have many heard of Henri Cartier-Bresson or even Annie
Leibovitz.
In this article, we take a step back and take a look at how this
fascinating technique was created and developed.
Before Photography: Camera Obscura
Before
photography was created, people had figured out the basic principles of lenses and the camera. They could project the image on the wall or
piece of paper, however no printing was possible at the time: recording light turned out to be a lot harder than projecting it. The
instrument that people used for processing pictures was called the
Camera Obscura (which is Latin for the dark room) and it was around for a
few centuries before photography came along.
It is believed that
Camera Obscura was invented around 13-14th centuries, however there is a
manuscript by an Arabian scholar Hassan ibn Hassan dated 10th century
that describes the principles on which camera obscura works and on which
analogue photography is based today.
Camera
Obscura is essentially a dark, closed space in the shape of a box with a
hole on one side of it. The hole has to be small enough in proportion
to the box to make the camera obscura work properly. Light coming in
through a tiny hole transforms and creates an image on the surface that
it meets, like the wall of the box. The image is flipped and upside
down, however, which is why modern analogue cameras have made use of
mirrors.
In the mid
16th century, Giovanni Battista della Porta, an Italian scholar, wrote
an essay on how to use camera obscura to make the drawing process
easier. He projected the image of people outside the camera obscura on
the canvas inside of it (camera obscura was a rather big room in this
case) and then drew over the image or tried to copy it.
The
process of using camera obscura looked very strange and frightening for
the people at those times. Giovanni Battista had to drop the idea
after he was arrested and prosecuted on a charge of sorcery.
Even
though only few of the Renaissance artists admitted they used camera
obscura as an aid in drawing, it is believed most of them did. The
reason for not openly admitting it was the fear of being charged of
association with occultism or simply not wanting to admit something many
artists called cheating.
Today we can state that camera obscura
was a prototype of the modern photo camera. Many people still find it amusing and use it for artistic
reasons or simply for fun.
The First Photograph
Installing film and permanently capturing an
image was a logical progression.
The
first photo picture—as we know it—was taken in 1825 by a French
inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. It records a view from the window at
Le Gras.
The
exposure had to last for eight hours, so the sun in the picture had
time to move from east to west appearing to shine on both sides of the
building in the picture.
Niepce came up with the idea of using a petroleum
derivative called "Bitumen of Judea" to record the camera's projection. Bitumen hardens with exposure to
light, and the unhardened material could then be washed away. The metal
plate, which was used by Niepce, was then polished, rendering a negative
image that could be coated with ink to produce a print. One of the
problems with this method was that the metal plate was heavy,
expensive to produce, and took a lot of time to polish.
Photography Takes Off
In
1839, Sir John Herschel came up with a way of making the first glass
negative. The same year he coined the term photography, deriving from the Greek "fos" meaning light and "grafo"—to
write. Even though the process became easier and the result was better,
it was still a long time until photography was publicly recognized.
At
first, photography was either used as an aid in the work of an painter or followed the same principles the painters followed. The first publicly
recognized portraits were usually portraits of one person, or family
portraits. Finally, after decades of refinements and improvements, the
mass use of cameras began in earnest with Eastman's Kodak's simple-but-relatively-reliable cameras. Kodak's camera went on to
the market in 1888 with the slogan "You press the button, we do the
rest".
In 1900 the Kodak Brownie was introduced, becoming the
first commercial camera in the market available for middle-class buyers. The
camera only took black and white shots, but still was very popular due
to its efficiency and ease of use.
Color Photography
Color
photography was explored throughout the 19th century, but didn't
become truly commercially viable until the middle of the 20th century. Prior
to this, color could not preserved for long; the images quickly degraded. Several methods of color
photography were patented from 1862 by two French inventors: Louis Ducos
du Hauron and Charlec Cros, working independently.
The first
practical color plate reached the market in 1907. The method it used was
based on a screen of filters. The screen let filtered red, green and/or
blue light through and then developed to a negative, later reversed to a
positive. Applying the same screen later on in the process of the print
resulted in a color photo that would be preserved. The technology, even
though slightly altered, is the one that is still used in the
processing. Red, green and blue are the primary colors for television
and computer screens, hence the RGB modes in numerous imaging
applications.
The first color photo, an image of a tartan ribbon
(above), was taken in 1861 by the famous Scottish physicist James Clerk
Maxwell, who was famous for his work with electromagnetism. Despite the
great influence his photograph had on the photo industry, Maxwell is
rarely remembered for this as his inventions in the field of physics
simply overshadowed this accomplishment.
The First Photograph With People
The
first ever picture to have a human in it was Boulevard du Temple by
Louis Daguerre, taken in 1838. The exposure lasted for about 10 minutes
at the time, so it was barely possible for the camera to capture a
person on the busy street, however it did capture a man who had his
shoes polished for long enough to appear in the photo.
Notables in Photography
At
one time, photography was an unusual and perhaps even controversial
practice. If not for the enthusiasts who persevered and indeed,
pioneered, many techniques, we might not have the photographic styles,
artists, and practitioners we have today. Here are just a few of the
most influential people we can thank for many of the advances in
photography.
Alfred Stieglitz
Photography
became a part of day-to-day life and an art movement. One of the people
behind photography as art was Alfred Stieglitz, an American
photographer and a promoter of modern art.
Stieglitz said that photographers are artists. He, along with F. Holland Day, led the Photo-Secession, the
first photography art movement whose primary task was to show that
photography was not only about the subject of the picture but also the
manipulation by the photographer that led to the subject being
portrayed.
Stieglitz set up various exhibitions where photos
were judged by photographers. Stieglitz also promoted photography
through newly established journals such "Camera Notes" and "Camera
Work".
Examples of Stieglitz's Work
Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (Felix Nadar)
Felix
Nadar (a pseudonym of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon) was a French
caricaturist, journalist and—once photography emerged—a
photographer. He is most famous for pioneering the use of artificial
lightning in photography. Nadar was a good friend of Jules Verne and is
said to have inspired Five Weeks in a Balloon after
creating a 60 metre high balloon named Le Géant (The Giant). Nadar was
credited for having published the first ever photo interview in 1886.
Nadar's
portraits followed the same principles of a fine art portrait. He was
known for depicting many famous people including Jules Verne, Alexander
Dumas, Peter Kropotkin and George Sand.
Examples of Nadar's Work
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri
Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer who is most famous for creating the "street
photography" style of photojournalism, using the new compact 35mm format (which we still use today). Around the age of 23, he became
very interested in photography and abandoned painting for it. "I
suddenly understood that a photograph could fix eternity in an instant,"
he would later explain. Strangely enough, he would take his first
pictures all around the world but avoided his native France. His first
exhibition took place in New York's Julien Levy Gallery
in 1932. Cartier-Bresson's first journalistic photos were taken at the
George VI coronation in London however none of those portrayed the King
himself.
The Frenchman's works have influenced generations of photo
artists and journalists around the world. Despite being narrative in
style, his works can also be seen as iconic artworks. Despite all the fame
and impact, there are very few pictures of the man. He hated being
photographed, as he was embarrassed of his fame.
Examples of Cartier-Bresson's Work
Looking Forward
The
next article in this series will look at the 1940s-80s, covering the
invention of multi-layer color negatives through to the introduction of
Polaroid and Fujifilm instant cameras. We'll also investigate the how
photography became a tool of propaganda and why it came to be used in
advertising products and promotion.
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Why Do We Restore Old Photographs?
How FSA Photography Changed the World
Historical Context, Contemporary Value: Old Photos as Cultural Documents
A History of Photography Part 2: The Growth
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