HISTORY of PHOTOGRAPHY

from
Camera Obscura
to
Digital

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 “Photography” is derived from Greek words
photos (light) and graphien (to draw)
meaning
DRAWING WITH LIGHT

The word was first used by the scientist Sir John

F.W.Herschel in 1839.

It is a method of recording images by the action

of light on a sensitive material.

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 Photography offered
a realistic representation of objects
and events with an objectivity and
detail never before possible.

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 Photography in Britain & France
was initially heralded for its technical
recording abilities.
With few exceptions, the emphasis was upon
picture-taking rather than
picture-making.

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The principle of concentrating light through a small hole in
order to create reflection on the wall of a dark chamber was
known to Aristotle (384-322BC)

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Earlier,
the painted portrait had been largely
the privilege of aristocrats.
By the mid-19th century, in addition to the large,
officially sanctioned* portraits of royalty and public
figures that were still commissioned,
the silhouette,
the camera lucida drawing,
and finally the photograph had arrived to
accommodate the needs of new patrons for likeness**

*sanctioned: onaylanmış, uygun görülmüş **likeness:suret, portre, resim, tasvir.

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The silhouette, on the other hand,
might be considered
the poor man’s miniature, though
it was not always small.

Traced from a cast shadow and

inked in, or cut freehand from
black paper, which was then
mounted on a lighter ground,
the silhouette showed only the
profile.

Johann Kaspar Lavater. Silhouette Machine,

c.1870.
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 Before the invention of photography,
the only visual record of distant places and events
was the stylized hand renderings of the artists.

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 history of photography

The photographic camera was based on

CAMERA OBSCURA
(or pinhole camera:darkroom)
which was one of the first discoveries
that made photography possible.
Camera Obscura: In its earliest form it was simply a darkened box with a tiny hole in one wall and a white screen on the
opposite wall.
An upside-down imaged of the objects outside the room was formed on the screen by light coming from the hole.

The image was upside down due to the way in which light enters the box.
 QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

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 Pinhole Photography is lensless
photography.
A tiny hole replaces the lens.
Light passes through the hole; an
image is formed in the camera.

Pinhole cameras are small or large,

improvised or designed with great care.
Cameras have been made of sea shells, coke
cans, cookie boxes, rooms in large buildings or
a discarded refrigerator.

Basically a pinhole camera is a box,

with a tiny hole at one end and film
or photographic paper at the other.

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 history of photography

All you need to have a pinhole camera:

• A light-tight container
• A pinhole aperture (instead of lens) to let light in
• A light-sensitive material
www.pineholeresource.com
 Pinhole images

-are softer -less sharp-

than pictures made with a lens.
- the image have nearly
infinite
depth-of-field.
- pinhole images suffer
from greater chromatic
aberration than pictures made
with a simple lens.
- exposures are long,
ranging from 30 sec. to several
hours.
- images are exposed on
film or paper (negative or
positive, B&W or color).

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200 mm pinhole camera made from canon 1ds digital
camera

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 history of photography

The development of CAMERA OBSCURA took 2 tracks:

1. The portable box device was 1st a DRAWING TOOL (in the 17th. & 18th. centuries).

2. By the 19th century the camera obscura was ready

to accept light sensitive material
(plates coated w/ silver salts) & to become
a photographic camera.

In the 19th century with improved lenses

that could cast larger and sharper images
but still requiring a focusing mechanism.
 Lenses were added to the camera obscura.

Producing brighter and sharper image but requiring a focusing mechanism.

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 history of photography

Martin Gasser identifies 3 phases for between

1839 – 1939

The priority debate: who first fixed the

photographic image?
History of the development of photography
methods + techniques
Histories of photograph as image
 In more than 170 years photographers and others
(basically scientists, painters...) tried to “fix” images
on different materials like;
copper, tin, silver plates, glass,paper and celluloid.

They have not only demonstrated that this is possible

but have also invented numerous different processes
for doing so.

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No single formula exists for making a photograph,
but
nearly 27 photographic processes
share 3 basic requirements:

1. Materials that behave predictably in response to light,

2. Chemicals that control and fix the action of light to
produce an image,
3. A support upon which the image rests.

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 history of photography

HISTORIES of PHOTOGRAPHY
170 years

Technical History
Functional History
Aesthetical History (photography as an art)
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FUNCTIONAL HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

•Portraiture
•Travel & Exploration Photography
•Architectural Photography
•Photojournalism
•Documentary Photography
•Snapshot Photography
•Personal Social Photography
•Advertising & Fashion Photography
•Industrial Photography
•Scientific Photography
•Nature Photography
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AESTHETICAL HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

•Early Portraits
•Pictorialism/ High-Art Photography (mid 1850s)
•The Photograph as a Document-Early Photojournalism
•Pictorial Photography (1900s)
•Photo-Secession (1900s)
•Straight Photography (1915-1933)
•“New Objectivity” - New Vision- in Europe (After 1920s)
•Surrealism and Man Ray (Early 1920s)
•Photography & Bauhaus Movement (1919-1933)
•Social Landscape Photography: Portraying Life-Europe (1930-
1945)
•Portraying Life - America (Social Documentary-FSA)
•The Post-War Period (After 1945)
•Realism and Subjectivism ( After 1950, 1970s & 1980s)
•Subjective Photography (today)
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From plates to film

1826 – 1891 (65 years)

Pewter (mixture of lead + tin).................Heliograph: Niépce/1826

Copper ………………….........................Daguerreotype: Daguerre/1839
Paper ………………….............................Calotype : W. H. Fox Talbot/1841
Glass ……………............. ……………….Collodion Wet-plate : F. S. Archer/1851
Gelatin ………………..............................Gelatin Dry-plate: R. Maddox/1871
Celluloid film …………...........................George Eastman Kodak/1891
 Technical History of Photography
Method
Year Name Method material
explained

Joseph Nicephore 1st photograph

1826
Pewter plates
Niépce
Heliograph coated with bitumen pewter 8 hours exposure

Jacques Louis Copper plates 30 minutes exposure

1839 Mande Daguerreotype coated with silver
iodide
copper due to the mercury
vapor
Daguerre

Direct positive
1839 Paper coated with
Hippolyte Bayard
printing silver chloride paper 12 minutes exposure

1st negative:10 sec.-1 min.

Paper coated with 2nd positive: 15 min.
William Henry Fox
1841 Talbot
Calotype silver nitrate +Gallic
acid
paper Exposure times decreases under
10 sec. due to research on
“accelerating substances”

Collodion
1851 Frederick Scott Archer
Wet-plate
Glass plate coated
with collodion glass
Gelatin plate
Dry
1871 Richard Maddox
Gelatin-plate
coated with silver
bromide*
gelatin

Celluloid film coated

George Eastman
1891 KODAK
Celluloid film with silver bromide
gelatin layer
celluloid

Positive color
1907 Lumiére Brothers Auto chrome plate transparencies on
glass plates
glass
Joseph Nicephore Niépce
(1765 – 1833)

He had been working on

obtaining a permanent image
since late 1700s.

1816 … 1st. unsuccessful try.

He succeeded in producing
a paper negative of camera image.
But he was
unable to fix the image.

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The 1st. person permanently recorded
the images of Camera Obscura
was a Frenchman

JOSEPH NICÉPHORE
NIÉPCE

in 1827 with 8 hours of exposure.

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First photograph, “View from the Study Window”, 1827, Nicéphore Niépce.
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Meanwhile another Frenchman

Jacques Louis Mande Daguerre
was using camera obscura
for sketching aid
and
was also experimenting with
the use of light-sensitive silver salts
to capture camera image.
 Niépce and Daguerre

1827 …………. Niépce + Daguerre met and 2 years later

1829 …………. They establish a partnership

1833 ………….. Niépce dies (without receiving a public recognition)

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Jacques Louis Mande Daguerre (1787-1851)

In 1831,
Daguerre also discovered the light sensitivity of silver iodide.
He used copper plate sensitized it by silver iodide
by exposing it to sunlight.
The plate was then inserted in a camera obscura and
exposed to light again.
After exposure, the plate was treated with mercury vapor to
produce a stronger, much visible image and
fixed with salt water :

DAGUERROTYPE.
In 1835,
4 years late by accident he made a critical breakthrough.
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STORY went like this:

He put an exposed copper sheet plate in his chemical

cupboard and some days later found to his surprise that the
latent image had developed.

He concluded that this was due to the presence of

MERCURY VAPOR
from the broken thermometer.
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1839
Jacques Louis Mande Daguerre:

Copper plates +silver iodide + mercury vapor

By using mercury vapor, Daguerre was able to develop the latent image
on a silver iodide plate.

Better quality in detail compared to Niepce’s 1st. photo

with a 30 minutes of exposure.

this new process called DAGUERREOTYPE
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First photography with a human being.

Louis JACQUES MANDE DAGUERRE. Boulevard du Temple, Paris, c. 1838.

Daguerreotype. Bayerisches National museum, Munich.
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Daguerrotype - original version and as restored

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Landscape photography evolved as a commercial enterprise with the taking

of views of well-known or extra-ordinary natural formations for the benefit
of travelers. A favorite site in the USA, Niagara Falls was daguerreotyped by
different photographers.

Niagara Falls ca. 1855

daguerreotype
13.2 x 18.3 cm., full plate
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Niagara River above the falls

The Niagara Suspension Bridge ca. 1856 ca. 1850 daguerreotype
21.5 X 16.5 cm., full plate
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The urban scene also was considered appropriate for daguerreotypist.

Bridge and Boats on the Thames, 1851 by Baron Jean Baptiste L.Gros typifies the incredible
amount of detail made visible by this process.
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Daguerre’s invention had some drawbacks:

Copper plate has to be developed immediately after the

exposure.
Plate could only be prepared just before use.
30 min. exposure is too long.
Each image is unique.
To photograph landscapes, early photographers had to carry
their darkrooms with them. Because chemical preparation
had to be made at the site.

It was a popular process between 1840-1860.

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D. F. MILLET. Couple and Child, 1854-59.

Daguerreotype.
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
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UNKNOWN PHOTOGRAPHER (American).

Dead Child, c. 1850. Daguerreotype.
Collection Richard Rudisill, Santa Fe, N.M.
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GUSTAV OEHME. Three

Young Girls, c. 1840s.
Daguerreotype.
Collection Bokelberg,
Hamburg.
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In 19 August 1839 invention of photography

publicly announced.

The fact that photographic process was invented at the

same time
by
3 different individuals:

Jacques Louis Mande DAGUERRE (with Niepce)

Hippolyte BAYARD
William Henry Fox TALBOT
 William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877)
He is the inventor of the negative-positive process
of photography in 1841 that we use today.

CALOTYPE
(from the Greek word: Kalos: Beautiful)

with his new method he was able

to decrease the exposure time
to minutes.
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Calotype process: 1st stage: Negative

The base of calotype negative was a high quality writing paper.

Paper first sensitized with silver chloride and then

with Gallic Acid (which shortens the exposure time to seconds).

Place the exposed image in a camera obscura to get a negative image.

A visible image develops within a few seconds

and was fixed with salt water
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Calotype Process: 2nd. stage: positive

The negative image was converted to a positive

image by placing it in contact
with
a second sheet of sensitized paper
&
exposing it to light in a process we now call
contact printing.
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Advantages of Calotype process:

✓ Unlimited number of prints could be made from a single negative.

✓ Retouching either on negative or positive is possible.
✓ More warmer tones.
✓ Negative paper: easy to carry and is traveler's favorite after
1850s.
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Disadvantages of Calotype process:

✓ Calotype prints lack the detail of a daguerreotype print.

✓ Materials were less sensitive to light meaning that requires long exposure times.
✓ The imperfections of paper reduces the quality of final print (not sharp as a daguerreotype)
✓ The process itself took longer.
✓ Prints tended to fade.
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“Latticed Window”
W.H.F. Talbot, 1835.

Earliest known existing photographic negative

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William Henry Fox Talbot, “The Open Door”, 1844, published in The Pencil of Nature.
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Frankfurt, 1846 by Talbot

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 pewter plate

1826: 1st. photograph by J. N. Niépce.

Method:Heliography.
He used pewter plates coated w/bitumen.
8 hours exposure !!!

1839: Invention of photography by J. L. M. Daguerre.

Method: Daguerrotype.
He used copper plate coated w/silver iodide
+ mercury vapor.
30 minutes exposure!!!
1841: William Henry Fox Talbot
Method: Calotype: Negative-Positive process.
He used paper coated w/silver nitrate + gallic acid (as an accelerating substance)

first in 2-3 minutes!!! but then to seconds....

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Till now 2 processes were used:

Daguerreotype
Calotype

The search began to combine the best parts of both processes;

Fine detail and sharpness from daguerreotype
Multiple prints from calotype

The ideal would have been

to coat light sensitive material on to a GLASS plate
with a suitable binder: COLLODION
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The Collodion Wet-Plate Process

by
Frederick Scott Archer
in 1851
with exposure time of 10 seconds.

In 1851 Daguerre died, symbolically end of an era.

The very same year a new technique was invented
and Calotype became obsolete.
 history of photography

Wet-plate process still had some major disadvantages:

since

Coating, Exposure & Development

had to be done while plates are still damp
&
wet-plate photographers had to carry
a complete darkroom with them.

Glass plates were heavy + fragile & print + plate sizes were 11 x 14 inch

A very heavy + bulky system as a whole

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studios
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Juliet Margaret Cameron, 'Paul and Virginia', albumen print from wet collodion-on-glass negative, 1864.
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Real revolution in exposure times came with

Richard Maddox’s
GELATIN DRY PLATE PROCESS
in 1871

1878: Dry plates manufactured commercially.

And from 1879 and on dry-plate process become widespread

A new era in photography: Instantaneous photography*

It was now possible to quickly produce negatives

with an exposure time of only a fraction of a second (1/25 sec.)

*şipşak fotoğraf
 history of photography

GELATIN DRY PLATE PROCESS

The search for a dry plate was finally ended with the discovery of
GELATIN as a carrier for the silver salts.

Gelatin dry plates allowed the manufacture of plates that could be

stored, carried to a site, exposed and then developed
at the photographer’s leisure.
(within 8 months after the exposure were made)

No longer did a photographer have to carry a darkroom on location.

Gelatin plates could be made in factory:

standardization of materials was introduces to photography.

NEXT STEP???? …coming soon

 history of photography

After 1840-41, ongoing experiments on “accelerating substances”

decreased exposure times fractions of a second.
Portrait photography becomes a commercial use and studios starts to open.

In France around Louvre:

1840 …….. 10 studios
1850 …… . 50 studios
Studios start to open after 1842 at Salzburg, Marseille, Lyon.

In the beginnings of 1850’s in Europe and in USA there is a big boom in photography.

Number of photography studios increased in Paris:

1840 ………. 50 studios
1860 …….. 400 studios

in London:
1856 ….... 55 studios
1861 ……. 200 studios
1865 …… 284 studios
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In England

1851….... 51 registered photographers

1861 .... 2800 registered photographers

A tradition in photography is to be formed

(which was never the case for photography in Turkey and is one of the reason
that explains the rootlessness of photography in Turkey
from its invention till today)
 history of photography

UNKNOWN. European-style Portable Darkroom Tent, 1877.

Wood engravings from A History and Handbook of Photography, edited by J. Thompson, 1877.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; gift of Spencer Bickerton, 1938.

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The next step was to replace the

heavy, fragile
glass plates with a
lightweight, flexible material.
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Kodak introduced his first roll film

in 1884.
The first roll film,
was made out of paper and
sensitized with a gelatin
emulsion.

Kodak's transparent film

that was introduced with
the kodak camera in
1888 which provided 100
exposures.
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The camera came loaded with film containing 100

exposures.
When all the pictures had been taken,
the entire camera was sent back to the company in
Rochester, where the prints were reloaded.
In other words,
Kodak invented a customer-friendly
photo-finishing business, as well as
an uncomplicated camera.

The company slogan;

“you press the button,
we do the rest ” and
popular photography was born…
 history of photography

“Photography for Everyone”

was the intention

First Kodak camera -Nr.1-

with a single speed of 1/125 sec.
+ fixed lens
(It came loaded with enough film for 100 pictures)
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Color Film
1st. truly method was the
autochrome plate
introduced by
Lumière Brothers in 1907
and

discontinued in 1932.
Autochrome plates started to be produced in France in 1907
and later by a German firm Agfa.
 history of photography

Photographers immediately started

experimenting with this plates
but
It took 30 years before color photography
really come into its own with the
development of
3-layer film by Kodak and Agfa
in 1935-1936.
 history of photography

1839-2009
170 years from its invention till today

Social (stories) …………………………………………..................... Personal (stories)

Techniques …………………………………………………............ Images
Outside …………………………………………………............ Inside

Look through windows …………………………………....................... Look introspectively

(fundamental dichotomy in contemporary photography)

Objective world ………………………………………………….............. Subjective world

Those who think as a

Those who think as a
method of exploration ……………………………………................. method of self-discovery