History of Photography

What we call photography first appeared in its most primitive form in the 1820s. This is when the first permanent photographs were taken. Of course, there were many scientific advancements, which led up to the invention of the photograph. Two silver compounds, both of which are sensitive to light were discovered by scientists long before the first photograph was produced. Albertus Magnus discovered silver nitrate in the 13th century, and Georges Fabricius discovered silver chloride in the 16th century. In comparison, silver nitrate is hardly sensitive to light, while silver nitrate is extremely sensitive to light. Silver chlorate is still used today to make photographic paper, because reacts well with photons and produces a latent image, which is invisible until the development of the film, via photoreduction.

1825 is the year in which the first photograph was invented. French inventor Nicéphore Niépce produced it on a polished pewter plate covered with bitumen of Judea, which is just a derivative of oil. The image was taken with a primitive version of what we now call a camera, and took an eight hour exposure to bright sunlight in order to develop. Since the bitumen of Judea hardens when it is exposed to light, the excess could be wiped off, and the metal plate could be polished. This would create a negative print, that when coated with ink and pressed down on paper, would create a print. Niépce began his experiment with silver compounds similar to those researched and discovered by Magnus and Fabricius, and based his experiment off of Johann Heinrich Schultz’s 1972 discovery that chalk and certain silver compounds, when combined, darken when exposed to light. Schultz’s discovery has began the basis of all photography, even to this day.

Image: Nicéphore Niépce’s earliest surviving photograph of a scene, circa 1826, “View from the Window at Le Gras,” Saint-Loup-de-Varennes (France).

Niépce then went on to form a partnership with Louis Daguerre, with whom he refined the current silver photoreduction process. They worked together until 1833, when Niépce died of a stroke, leaving all of his work to Daguerre. Daguerre, even though he had absolutely no scientific background, made two huge contributions to photography. He figured out two processes, which could combine to form a latent image with silver. First, before the exposure to light, you must expose the silver to iodine vapor, then after light exposure, you must expose the silver to mercury fumes. These two processes, when used in conjunction created a latent image. This process is almost exactly like the process used today with Polaroid photos. It was introduced to the world on January 7, 1839 as daguerreotype, which the French government immediately bought a patent for, and made it public domain. A very similar process was also made in 1832 by French-Brazilian painter and inventor Hercules Florence, who called it Photographie. This is how modern photography got its name.

In 1840, Fox Talbot greatly improved photography. Due to the potential hazard of sodium thiosulfate being able to dissolve the silver salts used in the photography process, as noted by John Herschel, an astronomer, Talbot modified the process so as to spread the silver chloride on paper sheets, which created an intermediate negative print. Originally, Talbot patented his invention of “photo paper”, as we call it now, but he spent the rest of his life defending his patent in court, and eventually gave up on it. George Eastman then went on to refine Talbot’s process even more, which is now what is used in most of today’s chemical cameras. Hippolyte Bayard has also developed a photography method, but he delayed the announcement of it, so, consequentially, he doesn’t get any credit for the invention.

The daguerreotype eventually became very popular throughout the industrial revolution, as there was an increase in the trend to have portrait’s of one’s self. Oil paintings couldn’t keep up with the high demands of the time, and photographs began to become more and more popular, until they were “the thing to have”, so to speak. The photography business did experience a setback, though, due to the fact that daguerreotypes were highly fragile, and very difficult to copy. This was fixed in 1884, however, by George Eastman from Rochester, New York. Eastman aided photography business greatly by his creation of dry gel on paper. Don’t recognize this invention? That’s because we call it film, and it has given photographers a much easy way of doing their job. Instead of lugging around a bunch of metal plates and toxic chemicals, they only have to carry a couple of rolls a film, and they can get so many more pictures out of it as well. It is also simple and cost-effective compared to developing prints out of the metal plates. This innovation lead to the Kodak camera, which Eastman released in 1888. The slogan was “You push the button, we do the rest.” This certainly appealed to a great deal of people, and after the release of the Kodak Brownie in 1909, everyone, not just “professionals” were taking pictures.

Now, we have had more recent innovations that make digital photography popular, but let’s no forget how we got to this point, and all the hard work many scientists put in to give us one of the most popular pastimes in the world.

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