1. HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY (part one)

2. PHOTO/GRAPHY: LIGHT/DRAWING or Drawing with Light
Derived from Greek:
‘photos’ for Light
‘graphé’ for Drawing
‘Drawing with Light’

3. 3 Basic Elements of Photography
Camera Obscura (meaning: Darkened Chamber or room)
Aperture (Opening that light goes through)
Light Sensitive Material (upon which the image is recorded)

4. The Dark Box Concept Dates back to ancient China and Greece
Dark room with small hole
Light comes in through small opening
Inverted image transferred onto wall inside dark box
No one thought to record these images-
at the time there was no demand

6. CAMERA OBSCURA (the original dark box art tool)
Optical device that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen
Artists modified the concept to fit their needs-traced realistic image quickly
Added lens to box (to focus image)
Sped up artistic process
Sharpened reality

7. LIGHT-SENSITIVE MATERIAL
Johann Schulze-discovered the light-sensitive nature of SILVER NITRATE (early 1700’s)
Silver Nitrate turns black when exposed to sunlight
Problem-How do you stop it from turning all black (how do you‘fix’the image)?

8. Thomas Wedgwood Experimented with silver nitrate prints
Put object on paper coated with silver nitrate
Exposed prints to sun
Created Silhouttes-aka Photograms
Photogram
Cyanotype

9. Joseph Nicephore Niépce (1765-1833)
Frenchman who invented the first “PHOTOGRAPH”
PROCESS: Coated a metal plate w/ BITUMEN (asphalt-like substance that hardens in proportion to its exposure to light) then washed in lavender oil (only hardened areas remained)
Put plate into camera
Exposed to sun (8 hours)
Wash plate w/ oil (removed unused areas)
Result - First “picture” called the HELIOGRAPH (SUN/DRAWING)

10. NIÉPCE’S FIRST HELIOGRAPH
View from the Window at Le Gras (1826 or 1827)
the earliest surviving photograph of a real-world scene, made using a camera obscura.

11. Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1787-1851)
French artist and physicist
Known as one of the fathers of photography
Looking for a way to reproduce realistic scenes for his dioramas
Produced his version of photography
Worked with Niépce. When Niépce died, Daguerre continued experimenting, evolving the process into what would be called the ‘Daguerreotype’
Introduces photography at world science exhibition in France.

12. Social Conditions that made the invention of photography possible:
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION - Increase in production, goods, and services
Rising Middle Class - More people with expendable income
New demand for portrait images (previously only for the rich – ie. painted portraits)
Emphasis on REALISM

13. The Daguerreotype Process
Light-tight plate holder designed to hold a copper plate faced with a thin layer of silver
Plate was made light-sensitive by fumes from iodine crystals in a wooden box
Plate is exposed to image
Exposed to Mercury fumes in protected area which developed the image
Fixed in a solution of common salt
Plate would be toned in gold chloride

14. Seattle-based artist Dan Carillo
Daguerrotype process

15. The Daguerreotype ADVANTAGES: A sharp, crisp, high- quality image
Reduced exposure time (7-10 minutes)
QUALITY
Process becomes FRANCHISED (makes Daguerre rich)
Easily accessible
Fine, detailed quality
Mirror like reflective look

16. The Daguerreotype DISADVANTAGES Small Size Easily damaged
One of a kind-NOT REPRODUCIBLE
Poisonous process
Exposure time -??(questionable)
1st Photographed person- Street scene in Paris (exposure time - 10 minutes)

17. Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877) British scientist and inventor
Invented photography simultaneously (in England)
Establishes modern photographic system -the CALOTYPE
Earliest known paper negative

18. The CALOTYPE System Developed a positive image from the negative
Result: printed REPRODUCIBLE photos on paper
Negative
Positive

19. CALOTYPES
ADVANTAGES
Reproducible (can make many copies from original negatives)
Quicker exposure times (1-3 minutes)

20. CALOTYPES DISADVANTAGES:
Had a hazy, artistic quality (people wanted razor- sharp quality)
Process was never mass-marketed or popularized