05/03/2025
The history of
began with the discovery of two critical
principles: The first is camera obscura image
projection, the second is the discovery that
some substances are visibly altered by
exposure to light[2]. There are no artifacts or
descriptions that indicate any attempt to
capture images with light sensitive materials
prior to the 18th century.
View from the Window at Le Gras 1826 or
1827, believed to be the earliest surviving
camera photograph.[1] Original (left) and
colorized reoriented enhancement (right).
Around 1717, Johann Heinrich Schulze used a
light-sensitive slurry to capture images of
cut-out letters on a bottle. However, he did not
pursue making these results permanent.
Around 1800, Thomas Wedgwood made the
first reliably documented, although
unsuccessful attempt at capturing camera
images in permanent form. His experiments
did produce detailed photograms, but
Wedgwood and his associate Humphry Davy
found no way to fix these images.
1826, Nicéphore Niépce first managed to fix
an image that was captured with a camera, but
at least eight hours or even several days of
exposure in the camera were required and the
earliest results were very crude. Niépce's
associate Louis Daguerre went on to develop
the daguerreotype process, the first publicly
announced and commercially viable
photographic process. The daguerreotype
required only minutes of exposure in the
camera, and produced clear, finely detailed
results. On August 2, 1839 Daguerre
demonstrated the details of the process to the
Chamber of Peers in Paris. On August 19 the
technical details were made public in a
meeting of the Academy of Sciences and the
Academy of Fine Arts in the Palace of Institute.
(For granting the rights of the inventions to the
public, Daguerre and Niépce were awarded
generous annuities for life.)[3][4[5] When the
metal based daguerreotype process was
demonstrated formally to the public, the
competitor approach of paper-based calotype
negative and salt print processes invented by
William Henry Fox Talbot was already
demonstrated in London (but with less
publicity).(5] Subsequent innovations made
photography easier and more versatile. New
materials reduced the required camera
exposure time from minutes to seconds, and
eventually to a small fraction of a second; new
photographic media were more economical,
sensitive or convenient. Since the 1850s, the
collodion process with its glass-based
photographic plates combined the high quality
known from the Daguerreotype with the
multiple print options known from the calotype
and was commonly used for decades. Roll
films popularized casual use by amateurs. In
the mid-20th century, developments made it
possible for amateurs to take pictures in
natural color as well as in black-and-white.
The commercial introduction of
computer-based electronic digital cameras in
the 1990s soon revolutionized photography.
During the first decade of the 21st century,
traditional film-based photochemical methods
were increasingly marginalized as the practical
advantages of the new technology became
widely appreciated and the image quality of
moderately priced digital cameras was
continually improved. Especially since cameras
became a standard feature on smartphones,
taking pictures (and instantly publishing them
online) has becomea ubiquitous everyday
practice around the world.
Color0S Notes
