Photography





Photography (Greek "drawing with light" from photos = light, and
graphis = stylus, paintbrush or graph = representation by means
of lines, drawing) is the technique of recording, by chemical or mechanical
means, a permanent image on a layer of material sensitive to light exposure.
The understanding that prevails today assumes the use of a camera or camera
obscura as the image forming device, and of photographic film as the
recording medium, but it doesn't have to be the case. For instance, the
photocopy or xerography machine is forming permanent images from a brightly
lit original, but is using the transfer of static electrical charges rather
than photographic film, hence the term electrophotography. Whereas the
rayographs published by Man Ray in 1922 are images produced by the shadows
of objects cast on the photographic paper, without the use of a camera.

Photography can be classified under the wider denomination of imaging
technology and, as such, has gained the interest of both scientists and
artists from its very beginning. Scientists have been interested by its
capacity to make accurate recordings, as Eadweard Muybridge in his study of
human and animal locomotion (1887). Artists have been equally interested by
this aspect but have also tried to explore other avenues than the
photo-mechanical representation of reality, as the pictorialist movement did.

The first photograph is considered to be an image produced in 1826 by
NicŽphore Niepce on a polished pewter plate covered with a petroleum
derivative called bitumen of Judea. It was produced with a camera, and
required an eight hour exposure in bright sunshine! In 1839 Jacques Daguerre
developed a process using silver on a copper plate called the Daguerreotype.
It is somehow similar to instant photography as it is the exposed material
that is handed over to the user, after processing. Almost at the same time,
William Fox Talbot developed a different process called the calotype, using
paper sheets covered with silver chloride. This process is much closer to
the photographic process in use nowadays, as it produces a negative image
that can be reused to produce several positive prints.

At the time, the Daguerreotype proved more popular as it responded to the
demand for portraiture emerging from the middle classes in midst of the
Industrial Revolution. In fact, this demand for portraits, that could not be
met in volume and in cost by oil painting, may well have been the push for
the development of photography. Neither of the techniques involved, the
camera obscura, and the photo sensitivity of silver salts, were 19th century
discoveries. Camera obscura were used by artists in the 16th century, as an
aid to sketches for paintings, and the photo-sensitivity of a silver nitrate
solution was observed by Johann Schultze in 1724.

Ultimately, the photographic process came to be a series of refinements and
improvements on the foundations laid by William Fox Talbot. Photography
became a mass-market opportunity in 1901 with the introduction of the Kodak
Brownie camera, and more importantly with the industrialisation of film
processing and printing. For the layman using a point-and-shoot camera 100
years later, very little has changed in principle since then, though color
film became the standard, and focusing and exposure-calculating aids have
become common. As for the enthusiast photographer processing black and white
film, very little has changed since the introduction of the 35mm film Leica
camera in 1925.

Color photography was explored throughout the 1800s. Initial experiments in
color could not fix the photograph and prevent the color from fading. The
first permanent color photo was taken in 1861 by the physicist James Clerk
Maxwell. The first color film, Autochrome, did not reach the market until
1907 and was based on dyed dots of potato starch. The first modern color
film, Kodachrome, was introduced in 1935 based on three colored emulsions.
Most modern color films, except Kodachrome, are based on technology
developed for Agfacolor in 1936. Instant color film was introduced by
Polaroid in 1963.

Traditional photography was to be a considerable burden for photographers on
remote locations?such as press correspondents?without access to processing
facilities. Under increased pressure from television to deliver their images
to the newspapers ever faster, photo-journalists on remote locations, would
carry a miniature photo lab with them, and some means of transmitting their
images down the telephone line. In 1990, Kodak unveiled the DCS 100, the
first commercially available digital camera. Its cost precluded any other
use than photojournalism and professional applications, but commercial
digital photography was born.

In 10 years, digital cameras have become consumer products, and they are
likely to gradually replace their traditional counterparts in most
applications as the price of electronic components goes down and the image
quality improves. However, "wet" photography will endure, as dedicated
amateurs and skilled artists preserve the use of traditional materials and techniques.