The History of Photography Tahlia.micallef

Joseph Niepce Joseph was the worlds first ever photographer. He was a frenchman who was born in 1765 and his death was in 1833. He produced the first permanent image in 1826 with an eight hour exposure on a pewter plate. Joseph commenced an association with Louis Daguerre in 1827, they established a partnership in 1829 to improve Niepce’s heliopraphic process.

Louis Daguerre In Louis’s earlier life he spent his time in theatre, he made use of the camera obscura to develop the ‘diorama’. His interest in heliography led him to a partnership with Joseph Niepce, after Niepce’s death he accidently found that mercury vapour would develop a latent image on a silvered plate that had been treated with iodine vapour. The early problems with daguerreotype were long exposure, laterally reversed images and that no copies could be made. The use of daguerreotype spread, until the 1850’s improvements by other photographers reduced exposure times making portrature possible.

William Henry Fox-Talbot William was born in 1800 and was introduced to the negative-positive process. His photographic career started with the use of the camera obscura for sketching. In 1834 he began to produce fixed images on paper (negatives). Compared to the Daguerreotype, Talbots photographs were very grainy, however Talbot made a research breakthrough which reduced exposure times. The calotype was pateneted in 1941 and allowed the production of many positive prints from one negative print.

Richard Leach-Maddox Richard is credited with the development of the modern gelatin-silver halide emulsion (1871). He did not patent his work and he received no gain from one of the most significant developments of photographic history, the basis of all modern photographic sensitised materials. He used the wet collodian process but suffered from the fumes from the chemicals, this led to the development of a gelatin emulsion with its adavantages. Although he was credited as the inventor it must be pointed out that he was only one of many working in the field of emulsion technology.

George Eastman George Eastman was the founder of the kodak organisation. He became interested in photography but he was dissatisfied with the amount of equipment needed. He read about the use of dry plates using a gelatin emulsion coating machine for dry plates and went into commercial production. In 1888 the number one kodak camera preloaded with film went on the marker. In 1900 the brownie camera made photography within the reach of everyone. In 1908 safety film was introduced. George Eastman passed away in 1932.