The History of Photography

Before Photography

The first "cameras" were used not to create images but to study optics. The Arab scholar Ibn Al-Haytham (945–1040), also known as Alhazen, is generally credited as being the first person to study how we see. He invented the camera obscura, the precursor to the pinhole camera, to demonstrate how light can be used to project an image onto a flat surface. Earlier references to the camera obscura have been found in Chinese texts dating to about 400 B.C. and in the writings of Aristotle around 330 B.C. By the mid-1600s, with the invention of finely crafted lenses, artists began using the camera obscura to help them draw and paint elaborate real-world images. Magic lanterns, the forerunner of the modern projector, also began to appear at this time. Using the same optical principles as the camera obscura, the magic lantern allowed people to project images, usually painted on glass slides, onto large surfaces. They soon became a popular form of mass entertainment. German scientist Johann Heinrich Schulze conducted the first experiments with photo-sensitive chemicals in 1727, proving that silver salts were sensitive to light. But Schulze didn't experiment with producing a permanent image using his discovery. That would have to wait until the next century.

The First Photographers

On a summer day in 1827, French scientist Joseph Nicephore Niepce developed the first photographic image with a camera obscura. Niepce placed an engraving onto a metal plate coated in bitumen and then exposed it to light. The shadowy areas of the engraving blocked light, but the whiter areas permitted light to react with the chemicals on the plate. When Niepce placed the metal plate in a solvent, gradually an image appeared. These heliographs, or sun prints as they were sometimes called, are considered the first try at photographic images. However, Niepce's process required eight hours of light exposure to create an image that would soon fade away. The ability to "fix" an image, or make it permanent, came along later. Fellow Frenchman Louis Daguerre was also experimenting with ways to capture an image, but it would take him another dozen years before he was able to reduce exposure time to less than 30 minutes and keep the image from disappearing afterward. Historians cite this innovation as the first practical process of photography. In 1829, he formed a partnership with Niepce to improve the process Niepce had developed. In 1839, following several years of experimentation and Niepce's death, Daguerre developed a more convenient and effective method of photography and named it after himself. Daguerre's daguerreotype process started by fixing the images onto a sheet of silver-plated copper. He then polished the silver and coated it in iodine, creating a surface that was sensitive to light. Then he put the plate in a camera and exposed it for a few minutes. After the image was painted by light, Daguerre bathed the plate in a solution of silver chloride. This process created a lasting image that would not change if exposed to light. In 1839, Daguerre and Niepce's son sold the rights for the daguerreotype to the French government and published a booklet describing the process. The daguerreotype gained popularity quickly in Europe and the U.S. By 1850, there were over 70 daguerreotype studios in New York City alone.

Flexible Roll Film

In 1889, photographer and industrialist George Eastman invented film with a base that was flexible, unbreakable, and could be rolled. Emulsions coated on a cellulose nitrate film base, such as Eastman's, made the mass-produced box camera a reality. The earliest cameras used a variety of medium-format film standards, including 120, 135, 127, and 220. All of these formats were about 6cm wide and produced images that ranged from rectangular to square. The 35mm film most people know today was invented by Kodak in 1913 for the early motion picture industry. In the mid-1920s, the German camera maker Leica used this technology to create the first still camera that used the 35mm format. Other film formats also were refined during this period, including medium-format roll film with a paper backing that made it easy to handle in daylight. Sheet film in 4-by-5-inch and 8-by-10-inch sizes also became common, particularly for commercial photography, ending the need for fragile glass plates. The drawback to nitrate-based film was that it was flammable and tended to decay over time. Kodak and other manufacturers began switching to a celluloid base, which was fireproof and more durable, in the 1920s. Triacetate film came later and was more stable and flexible, as well as fireproof. Most films produced up to the 1970s were based on this technology. Since the 1960s, polyester polymers have been used for gelatin base films. The plastic film base is far more stable than cellulose and is not a fire hazard. In the early 1940s, commercially viable color films were brought to the market by Kodak, Agfa, and other film companies. These films used the modern technology of dye-coupled colors in which a chemical process connects the three dye layers together to create an apparent color image.

Instant Photography

Instant photography was invented by Edwin Herbert Land, an American inventor and physicist. Land was already known for his pioneering use of light-sensitive polymers in eyeglasses to invent polarized lenses. In 1948, he unveiled his first instant-film camera, the Land Camera 95. Over the next several decades, Land's Polaroid Corporation would refine black-and-white film and cameras that were fast, cheap, and remarkably sophisticated. Polaroid introduced color film in 1963 and created the iconic SX-70 folding camera in 1972. Other film manufacturers, namely Kodak and Fuji, introduced their own versions of instant film in the 1970s and '80s. Polaroid remained the dominant brand, but with the advent of digital photography in the 1990s, it began to decline. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and stopped making instant film in 2008. In 2010, the Impossible Project began manufacturing film using Polaroid's instant-film formats, and in 2017, the company rebranded itself as Polaroid Originals.

Digital Cameras

The roots of digital photography, which would revolutionize the industry, began with the development of the first charged-couple device (CCD) at Bell Labs in 1969. The CCD converts light to an electronic signal and remains the heart of digital devices today. In 1975, engineers at Kodak developed the very first camera creating a digital image. It used a cassette recorder to store data and took more than 20 seconds to capture a photo. By the mid-1980s, several companies were at work on digital cameras. One of the first to show a viable prototype was Canon, which demonstrated a digital camera in 1984, although it was never manufactured and sold commercially. The first digital camera sold in the U.S., the Dycam Model 1, appeared in 1990 and sold for $600. The first digital SLR, a Nikon F3 body attached to a separate storage unit made by Kodak, appeared the following year. By 2004, digital cameras were outselling film cameras, and digital is now dominant.