The History of Photography, film and Video Arts

Louis DaguerreCreator of

the Daguerre

otype process

• In 1826, Frenchman Joseph Niepce took a picture (heliograph, as he called it) of a barn.

• The image, the result of an eight-hour exposure, was the world's first photograph.

• Little more than ten years later, his associate Louis Daguerre devised a way to permanently reproduce an image, and his picture—a daguerreotype—needed just twenty minutes' exposure.

• Photography was born.

Daguerreotypes• The exquisite detail along with the

silver-mirror quality gave these Daguerreotype a magical appearance.

• Some considered it impolite to stare too long at those people in the photograph.

• The first practical photographs were not paper like today's, but on a sheet of metal or glass. 1870’s Tintype of baseball players.

• The beginning of the 19th century was an exciting time to be alive. As people began to learn more and more about the world, the need for capturing surroundings more accurately arose.

• This need exceeded the capability of the artists. People sought ways of directly capturing images so that they were preserved.

http://www.fi.edu/learn/sci-tech/daguerreotype-photography/daguerreotype-photography.php?cts=photography

Baseball Cards & Photography• Baseball cards as we know them can

be traced not only to the rising popularity of baseball in the mid-1800s, but to the development of photography and commercial printing processes..

• The Man Who Coined "Photography"• Also in 1839, the term "photography" was coined by

Sir John Herschel, a British mathematician and astronomer (side note: his father, Sir Frederick William Herschel, also a famous astronomer, discovered the planet Uranus!)

• Herschel also coined the terms "negative" and "positive" in the context of photography, and also of the vernacular "snapshot."

American Civil War Photography

• The American Civil War (1861–65) was the first war in history to be caught on camera.

• There were a good number of battles and other scenes of the American Civil War, and they have provided the world with a visual first hand account of this period in American history.

• In terms of photography, the American Civil War is the best covered conflict of the 19th century. It presaged the development of the wartime photojournalism of World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

Mathew Brady • Mathew B. Brady, was born in 1823 in New

York. • Brady can be viewed as the father of

photojournalism. • He was the most prominent photographer

of the Civil War because of his commitment and mastery of his job.

• He mastered the art when he was in his 20s.

• Brady would later spend his own accumulated earnings to take pictures of the war. "From the first, I regarded myself as under obligation to my country to preserve the faces of its historic men and mothers."

Mathew Brady• Mathew Brady taken shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run, wearing a saber given to him for defense.

• Brady was almost killed at Bull Run and in the confusion got lost for three days, eventually making his way to Washington nearly dead from starvation

Oldest Photographs

The Kodak Brownie

• If you asked people in the 1950s, 1970s, or even 1990s what life would be like in the year 2000, many would have had some pretty interesting answers for you. Futuristic clothing, spaceship-like cars, and advanced robotic systems to handle the most ordinary daily tasks.

• But now that we are well into the 21st century, we take a moment to reflect on an object that helped to usher in the beginning of a previous century.

This camera made photography easy and affordable for average families.

• The Kodak "Brownie" camera made its debut at the turn of the twentieth century and sold for one dollar.

• 100,000 of them were purchased during the first year alone.

• The Brownie helped to put photography into the hands of amateurs and allowed the middle class to take their own "snapshots" as well.

• Eastman Kodak introduced the new Brownie dollar box camera in 1900; the release was supported by a major advertising campaign. The name "Brownie" was chosen primarily because of the popularity of a children's book of cartoons of the same name.

Brownie Camera Commercial 1958