2. People have been keeping visual records of themselves and the things
around them since prehistoric times, recording images that range from
carefully drawn hieroglyphics to pictures taken on the surface of the moon.
Each image is an attempt to communicate from one person to another the
things we see.
Photography, which means literally “writing with light”, gives us the means to
record and examine our day-to-day activities and experiences. Unlike the
casual glance, which often “sees” only the major elements of a scene, a
photograph records the tiniest of details. It then allows us time to study and
understand each minute element. A photograph preserves what memory
cannot.

3. The ability of light to transmit images was apparently first
casually noted by the Egyptians some ten thousand years ago.
Hiding from the fierce sun in their tents and huts, these
ancients noted that when light reflected from objects came
beaming through tiny holes in the ten walls, the colored image
of an upside-down camel or person was projected onto the tent
wall. Inspired by this experience, they began to experiment
with ways to capture and preserve images and became the first
“photographers”.

4. Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher, first described the
formation of a crude optical image in about 350 B.C. He observed
that when a beam of light was allowed to enter a darkened room
through a small hole an image was formed. By holding a piece of
paper six inches or so from the opening he was able to capture the
image. Though blurred and upside down the image was
recognizable.
Leonardo DaVinci, early in the sixteenth century, diagrammed in
his famous Notebooks the workings of a camera, complete with
instructions on how to use it.

5. The phenomenon that Aristotle described and DaVinci illustrated became
known as the camera obscura. This term, meaning “dark room”, was
introduced by the Italians, whose painters were among the first to make
practical use of Aristotle’s discovery. In the early 1500s Italian painters
used the camera obscura to improve proportion and perspective in their
paintings.
During the next two hundred years many improvements were made in
the basic camera obscura. A glass lens that greatly sharpened the image
eventually replaced the somple opening, the camera was made smaller
and more portable, and mirrors were added so that the image was
projected in an upright position.

7. By the early 1700s, the basic optical equipment necessary
for manufacturing a camera was available, and the camera
obscura had come to look much like the basic camera of
today. But the solution to the basic problem of preserving
the camera’s image continued to elude scientists and
inventors. It took and additional 120 years to solve that
mystery.

8. During the 1700s, several people were experimenting
with chemicals that were sensitive to light. The
biggest challenge facing photographers was to find a
fixing agent that would make the images permanent.

9. A German professor of anatomy, Schulze was experimenting with
the manufacture of phosphorus when he discovered that a
combination of chalk, aqua regia (a combination of nitric and
hydrochloric acids), and silver nitrate turned purple when exposed
to light. By the process of elimination he discovered that silver
salts were the darkening agent. Unfortunately, however, he failed
to make use of this discovery. The credit for applying Shulze’s
results goes to Thomas Wedgwood.

10. The great English potter Josian Wedgwood used the camera obscura to
reproduce accurate drawings for his ornamental china and potter. His
son Thomas was the first to apply the idea of light-sensitive chemicals to
the camera obscura. Familiar with the camera obscura because of his
father’s work, and with Schulze’s discoveries about silver salts because
of his fascination with chemistry, Wedgwood produced silhouettes of
insect wings and leaves on white leather coated with silver nitrate.
However, the process was too slow to be used in the camera obscura,
and there was not way to fix and preserve the image.

11. Partial credit for the inventiono f photography has also been given to
Frenchman Joseph Niepce, who, after many disappointments,
successfully produced the world’s first photograph in 1827. To
create it, he coated a pewter plate with bitumen of Judea, or
asphaltum, placed the plate in the camera, and made an eight hour
exposure. To develop the photograph, he rinsed the plate with
lavender oil. Althought the image was far from perfect, it was a
milestone in the advancement of the art.

12. Another Frenchman, Daguerre, started his own search for the ideal fixing
agent when his brief partnership with Niepce broke up. In 1837, after eight
years of searching, he found what he was looking for, mercury vapor.
Daguerre patented his process as the daguerreotype process. The
procedure involved making an exposure on silver foil that had been
sensitized with iodine. Following exposure, the foil was brought into contact
with mercury vapor for development. The image was made permanent with
a solution of common salt. Daguerreotype prints were an instant success.
Studios were opened, and professional photographers began giving portrait
painters stiff competition for business. Gradually, over the years,
refinements were made in the lens and in the light sensitivity of the plates
that were use. The popularity of daguerreotype portraits leaped when a
method was devised to soften the tones and enrich the image.

13. Talbot, and English contemporary of Daguerre, made the next major
contribution to photography – production of the first negative image. Working
with silver nitrate and sodium chloride (salt), Talbot produced silver chloride,
a compound more sensitive to light than Daguerre’s foil plates. Talbot coated
paper instead of glass or metal plates, to produce the first negative image in
1835. Despite his disappointment at public indifference to his discovery,
Talbot made numerous experiments to perfect the process. While working to
improve his technique, Talbot discovered the latent image, an invisible image
formed on film after exposure but before development. He realized that the
resulting negative would enable him to reproduce an image easily. In 1841
he obtained a patent for his process, which he called the calotype
photographic process, derived from the Greek word calos meaning
“beautiful”.

14. Although Talbot did not enjoy the instant success of Daguerre, his
discoveries and contributions to photography were the keys that
unlocked the negative-positive image process, earning him
recognition as the father of modern photography.

15. The same year Talbot patented the calotype process, a Viennese
photographer, Petzval, designed the first fast portrait lens- a lens ten
times faster than the landscape lenses used in the daguerreotype
cameras. The daguerreotype, which was already being replaced by
Talbot’s negative process, was further relegated to the past by
Petzval’s faster lens, which relieved subjects from the necessity of
sitting for excruciatingly long sessions.

16. The English sculptor, Archer, invented the wet collodion process while
attempting to improve the calotype process he used during sculpting.
Archer decided to try using collodion, a substance made by dissolving
guncotton (nitrocellulose) in ether. Archer made a mixture of the gelatin-
like collodion and potassium iodide and spread it thinly over a glass
plate. He then dipped the still damp plate into a solution of silver nitrate.
The plate had to be exposed immediately because it’s light sensitivity
dropped sharply as it dried. As soon as it was exposed, the plate was
developed in pyrogallic acid and fixed with sodium thiosulfate. Archer’s
original intention was to use the collodion as a process for producing
negatives, but it soon became a popular method for positive production
too.

17. The collodion process was more technical and demanding than
either the daguerreotype or the calotype processes. It was
especially troublesome for outdoor photographers, who had to
take a complete portable darkroom into the field. But the process
produced excellent results. With an exposure time of less than ten
seconds instead of several minutes, it produced sharp, clear,
negatives that could easily be reprinted.

18. Cameron, one of the most remarkable amateur photographers of all
time, started work in the 1860s on what she considered a “divine
art”. In her photographs she attempted to record “the greatness of
the inner as well as the features of the outer man.” She pioneered
in the use of close-up techniques, large plates, and unusual
lighting. She used an enormous lens and demanded that her
subjects sit frozen for exposures lasting five to seven minutes. Her
portrait subjects included the great, and the not so great of the
period.

19. Though there are several others who contributed to
the progress of modern photography along our history
of photography timeline, the next big contribution was
made by George Eastman. He began as an amateur
photographer in 1877. Within twenty years he
controlled the largest photographic manufacturing
company in the world. Can you venture a guess at
the company’s name?

20. Introduced in 1888, the Kodak No.1, Eastman’s simple box
camera was the first camera to use roll film instead of plates or
sheets. The camera appealed to the masses of amateur
photographers because it was small (6 ½ inches x 3 ½ inches x 3
½ inches) and simple to operate. The advertising slogan “You
press the button, we do the rest” indicated that anyone who could
press the button could get a good picture. Eastman chose the
name Kodak because the word mimicked the sound the shutter
made and was easily pronounced throughout the world.

21. The camera came loaded with enough film
for one hundred pictures and cost twenty-
five dollars. When the one hundred
pictures had been taken, the photographer
mailed the camera to the Eastman plant in
Rochester , NY. The film was then
processed, prints were made, the camera
was reloaded with film, and the pictures and
camera were returned to the owner. Total
cost for the prints and new film was ten
dollars.

22. In the 1890s, following on the heels of Kodak, a host of
manufacturers attempted to complete in the vast amateur
photography marketplace. The folding bellows camera, the
twin-lens reflex camera, and the “nodark” – a camerathat
processed its own film- appealed to beginners throughout
the world. Small cameras became even more popular
with Dr. Paul Rudolph’s invention of a precision lens – the
Zeiss Tessar.

23. Small simple cameras had been developed to appeal to those novice
photographers who wanted to preserve on film Jimmy’s sixth birthday or
the family vacation to the coast. In 1925 the serious photographer was
provided with a small, high-quality, hand-held camera that used 35 mm
film and the Zeiss lens – the Leica. Leicas established the standard for
the modern-day 35mm cameras. The inventor of the Leica, Oscar
Barnack, started work on the camera two years earlier as a means to
pretest the exposure of movie film. It worked so well that on mountain
hikes he substituted the smaller prototype Leica for his bulky field
camera. Leicas have been in production since 1925 and have been
refined and improved so that today they are still among the world’s
premier cameras.

24. Harold Edgerton’s electronic flash ushered photography
into an era of ultra-high speed, with shutter exposures
of less than 1/50,000
of a second. Edgerton’s photographs have shown us a
drop of milk hitting a plate, a bullet passing through a
light bulb, and a hummingbird resting on air.

25. After World War II, amateur photography experienced another boom
period. Renewed interest was in large part due to the advent of the Kodak
Brownie instamatic cameras and the 1947 invention of the Polaroid Land
Camera (a camera that bore the name of it’s inventor, Edwin Land). The
revolutionary new Polaroid produced a positive print in sixty seconds,
because both the negative and the positive images were developed
simultaneously. Despite harsh critics who said the Polaroid could not
possibly last, it has endured to become a photographic mainstay among
amateurs, as well as being used by many professionals in many different
media related fields. In 2008 Polaroid stopped production of it’s instant
photography line, but in 2009, back by popular demand, the company
announced that Polaroid would soon be available once again.