What is Photography? -science and art combined -freezing and capturing life in a single moment -literally means “light” (photo) “writing”(graphy)

A little history… First photograph was made in france in 1826 by Joseph Niepce The first camera was called the “camera obscura”----NOT invented by Joseph Niepce, he just used it. The camera obscura was invented in the 16 th century. Niepce was trying to create printing plates of images without having to engrave each one and not being able to re-use them. He used varnish and metal plates.

Neipce called his prints “Heliographs” These heliographs often took hours to expose Neipce used the Camera Obscura and placed varnish on metal plates, the light from the scene eventually altered the varnish that was on the metal. He had mild success in trying to find a shortcut for making printing plates, but his methods never caught on. The importance of his discoveries are what became the foundation for daguerrotypes.

After Joseph Niepce made the first permanent photograph using the camera obscura, Louis Daguerre built on the idea and invented the daguerrotype in The daguerrotype is a POSITIVE black and white image on a polished, silver plated, copper sheet. The image was sharper and had more detail than with the obscura—the public loved it. However, the process took hours and each image was a one-of-a-kind, therefore making this an expensive option.

Meanwhile, in 1834, Henry Fox Talbot worked with the experiments of Schulze, proving that silver salts were darkened by light itself. Talbot soaked sheets of paper in silver chloride, put them inside a camera obscura, and made paper negatives. By 1939 he was contact printing his negatives onto other light sensitive sheets to create positive images. *Exactly what we do in the darkroom.*

In 1888 George Eastman made the first “point and shoot” camera. Called the Kodak, this product allowed for mass production In 1889 he introduced a new version that used a roll of film. It was a simple box, preloaded with 100 exposures This made photography cheaper, therefore accessible to everyone.

Four Fathers of Photography Joseph Neipce Louis Daguerre Henry Fox Talbot George Eastman

What was the very first camera called? What was it used for?