The word "photography" comes from the Greek words "phos" (meaning light) and "graphē" (meaning drawing or writing) This reflects the fact that photography is essentially a way of "drawing with light" to create images

Photography, as we know it today, can trace back its roots to the early 19th century. The first permanent photograph was infact taken in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce using a device called camera obscura. Since then, photography has undergone many changes. Throughout history, photography has been used for documentation, art, and personal expression. It has played a significant role in shaping our understanding of the world and has become an integral part of our daily lives. 

photography is a fascinating and engaging story of technological innovation, artistic expression, and social change, and it offers insights into the ways in which people have captured and communicated their experiences over time.

The very first Camera

The camera obscura is an optical device that has been used for centuries to create images. The term "camera obscura" is Latin for "dark chamber," which accurately describes how it works.

A camera obscura consists of a box or room with a small hole or opening on one side. Light from outside the box passes through the hole and projects an inverted image of the scene outside onto a surface inside the box, such as a wall or a piece of paper. The image is upside down and reversed left to right, but it is a clear representation of the outside world.

The camera obscura has been used for artistic and scientific purposes throughout history. Artists would use it to project images onto canvases, allowing them to trace the outlines of the scene and create more accurate depictions of landscapes and buildings. Scientists used it to study optics and better understand how light behaves.

Leonardo da Vinci had even written about the camera obscura in the 16th century, and other inventors had experimented with various ways to capture images using this device. But Niépce's work was the first successful attempt to create a permanent photographic image using a camera.

Today, the camera obscura is still used by some photographers and artists as a tool for creating unique images. Some people even build their own camera obscura using everyday objects like shoeboxes or tents to experiment with this fascinating optical phenomenon. In fact you can create your own Camera Obscura if you follow this link!

The second camera ever made and the evolution of Photography

The second camera ever made was also invented by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, and he created it in collaboration with Louis Daguerre. The two men worked together in the 1820s and 1830s to improve upon Niépce's original camera and develop a new photographic process called the daguerreotype.

The daguerreotype camera was made of a wooden box with a brass lens, which focused the image onto a silvered copper plate that had been polished to a mirror finish and then sensitized with iodine. After the plate was exposed to light, it was developed using mercury vapor to create a unique, one-of-a-kind image.

The daguerreotype process became wildly popular in the 1840s and 1850s, and it helped to kickstart the photography industry by making it possible for people to have their portraits taken. Daguerre and Niépce's invention also paved the way for other photographic processes, such as the wet plate collodion process and the dry plate process, which made it easier and faster to capture images using a camera. leading to the establishment of photography studios and the production of photographic prints in large quantities.

Richard Maddox was an English physician who is credited with inventing the dry plate photographic process in 1871. The dry plate process was a major breakthrough in the history of photography, as it allowed photographers to use pre-prepared photographic plates that could be stored and used later without the need for immediate processing.

The dry plate process also paved the way for other photographic innovations, including the development of flexible film and faster, more sensitive emulsions.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, advances in camera technology made it possible to create smaller, more portable cameras that could be used to capture images in a more casual, spontaneous manner. Photographers like Alfred Stieglitz, who is often credited with pioneering modernist photography, began to experiment with new techniques and styles, using the camera to explore the world around them in a more creative and artistic way.

The introduction of roll film in the early 1900s made photography even more accessible, and by the mid-20th century, cameras had become smaller, lighter, and more user-friendly than ever before. This led to a boom in amateur photography and a proliferation of snapshot-style images, capturing everyday moments and experiences in a way that had never been possible before.

How the evolution of the camera affected the style of photography

The earliest cameras with their long exposure times were more prone to issues such as camera shake, or the subject moving. The long exposure time of the camera required absolute stillness from the subjects. This is a difficult task so you would typically not find people smiling in early portraiture work. Similar to painting that took a long time, Subjects were often photographed or painted in a seated position with minimal facial expresion in order to produce the sharpest and most accurate photos possible. 

As photographic technology continued to evolve, so too did the ways in which photographers used the medium. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, photographers like Julia Margaret Cameron and Edward Steichen experimented with new techniques and styles, using the camera to create highly stylized and expressive images.

In the mid-20th century, photojournalists like Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa used photography to document the social and political upheavals of their time, while artists like Ansel Adams and Irving Penn explored the aesthetic possibilities of black and white photography.

Whereas, the first photograph took over 8 hours to expose and develop. As technology advanced, the exposure time decreased. In the mid-1800s, the introduction of wet plate collodion photography reduced the exposure time to a few seconds. Later, the invention of dry plate photography in the 1870s made it possible to take photographs with exposure times as short as 1/100th of a second.

Long exposure however is still a useful method of photography that is used today for the purpose of creating several types of photographs that require this type of long duration light exposure. Cameras that allow for minute-long exposures are typically used in certain types of photography, such as astrophotography, night photography, and long exposure landscape photography.

Fun Fact!

The world's most expensive photograph ever sold is a print by Andreas Gursky titled "Rhein II". It was sold for $4.3 million in 2011 and depicts a section of the Rhine River in Germany. The photograph is notable for its minimalist style and use of muted colors.