Blast to the past

I love this look. I really respect those who can do this in the darkroom, painted negitives are one of the hardest things to do. I did this in photoshop, i want to learn to actually do it, it's really though though. Anyways this post is about the history of photography and an essay i did outlining the 3 main people responsible for making photogrpahy what it is today. Read on...

Photography has changed the world in which we live in many ways. It has given us an easy way to document people and events and has also allowed us to express ourselves in new exciting ways. The digital technology now lets us instantly share our photos. To understand what life was like in other times we look to the art of the time. Paintings give us a glimpse of what it was like to live in that time but we can’t take what we see in a painting to be true. A painting took days to produce there was no way to paint a battle scene exactly as it was. Also a portrait of a leader may give us an idea of what they look like but we need to remember that these painters were hired. The Artist may have been forgiving when it came to the persons’ shortcomings. Photography in its purest form is truth. There is no artistic rendering or biases. It captures the scene exactly as it was. None of the digital technology we have today would have been possible if it weren’t for those who explored photography in the early years, the fathers of photography. The people who have been most influential in this field have been Louis Daguerre, Edward Muybridge, and George Eastman. These men who have each made a significant contribution to form photography as we know it today.

Photography is a relatively new form of media. The classic arts, such as painting and sculpting, have been around since ancient times whereas photography was only developed in recent centuries. As with all new things people were scared by photography; when Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre introduced the first piece of photographic equipment in 1839, known as the Daguerreotype, society was uneasy. One person in attendance at a demonstration went so far to say, “from today art is dead”. This new technology was making many occupations unnecessary, such as book illustrators and scientific artists; therefore, many of these people became photographers to make a living. The main objections came from the fine art community who saw photography as an undisciplined lower class activity as opposed to a form of art. Painters who spent years developing their skills painting portraits were now replaced by this new technology. Painting was now solely an art form; it was a much slower form of portraiture as well as more expensive. Although not cheap by any means, photography was a more popular choice for portraits

Edward Muybridge was one of the first photographers to be respected by both the artistic and scientific communities. In 1869 he developed a shutter that allowed him to freeze motion and by 1878 he invented a method of capturing motion. The process required 12 cameras equipped with Muybridge’s stop motion shutter and an electrically controlled mechanism to operate the cameras' shutters. Wires were laid underground along the track (what track?) at 21-inch intervals, which released the shutter of each camera as the subject made contact. This allowed Muybridge to capture the motion of a horse’s gallop. The horse was required to pull a sulky in order to trip the shutters. The method was a success and this led to Muybridge’s further study of both animal and human motion. The art and science communities alike praised these projects. Muybridge is responsible for making photography accepted as art. The motion series was highly praised in the art world and resulted in Muybridge coining the nickname “artist photographer”. Not only did this series rock the art world but it also created quite a stir in the scientific community. The photos were extremely beneficial in the study of both animal and human motion. Now that photography was accepted as a respectable form of art the doors were open for further experimentation. The next step would be getting a camera into the hands of the public.

The first mass marketed camera would hit the market in 1888, developed by George Eastman; the Kodak camera was the first of its kind. At this time the standard method of developing was the “dry plate” method. The companies producing the dry plates were backing them with glass, which was not in surplus and therefore expensive. Eastman’s thinking was that if he could develop a new inexpensive film he could control the entire market. In 1844 he introduced paperbacked film and in 1888 the Kodak camera was put on the market. The Kodak camera measured 3.5x3.75x6.5 inches in size and came pre-loaded with 100 exposures for $25. The camera endured huge success in the amateur market. After one had used the 100 exposures they would mail the camera back to Kodak, which was then sent to Rochester where it would be unloaded and developed in a darkroom. The finished prints, negatives and reloaded camera would then be sent back to the owner for a fee of ten dollars. Eastman put a camera into the hands of the working class, now everyone could have family photos whereas before they were only available to the rich. The short exposure times which were now measured in fractions of a second allowed, and the compact size of the camera allowed the public to take photo’s anywhere. This was never possible with the long exposure and large equipment that was needed for photography before. Now you saw less awkwardly posed subjects and the photo’s were much more accurate representation of the time period. It was now possible to even take candid photo’s capturing the true nature of people, something that could never happen before.

Many people have influenced the field of photography in various ways; these men have made what I believe to be the most influential contributions. Daguerre brought us the ability to capture and image. Muybridge is responsible for freezing motion, and thus making photography a respected art form as well as a tool for scientific research. And finally Eastman who brought photography to the masses allowing for self-expression and large-scale experimentation, which would lead to further developments in the field. Everyone sees things differently and these men, with their individual efforts, have allowed for people to use photography how the see fit; some choose to document events, take snap shots of their family, or a thousand other things that are possible. Photography allows people to show the world what they see as important through that viewfinder.

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There you have it. If you made it this far thanks for reading, hope you learned something : )

G'night,

-Pete-