Brief History Of Photography

Obscura Camera

30,000 BCE

It means 'darkroom', the image is projected through a pinhole.
The image is inverted (Upside Down) due to refraction of light.
It is believed that it was invented by natural holes and letting light in the caves.

Mo Ti

500 BCE

Mo Ti (China) made the first description of the Camera Obscura

Leonardo DaVinci

1490

First to describe why and how a Camera Obscura works.
He is also the first to find out that the human eye works in the same way (Our eyes receive image 'upside down', but our brains turns them rightside up)

Improvement to the Camera Obscura

1500

Brightness and clarity of Camera Obscura improved by enlarging the hole and inserting a telescope lens

Artists trace with Camera Obscura

1600

Camera Obscuras were more frequently used by artists to trace images and they were also made more portable, in the form of sedan chairs.

Discovery of Silver Nitrate

1727

Professor J. Schulze accidentally made the first photosensitive compound by mixing chalk, nitric acid and silver in a flask. he noticed the flask darkening on side of flask exposed to sunlight.

First Photographic Process

1800

Building on Professor J. Schulze's discovery, Thomas Wedgwood made the first photographic process called 'Sun Drawing'. This was made by painting the silver nitrate onto a piece leather, placing and object over the paint and setting it in the sun. This would leave the silhouette of the object on the leather. However this also faded quickly.

First Permanent Image

1826

Joseph Niepce made the first permanent image, through a process he called heliography, which means Sun Drawing', it took over 8 hours to expose the image of a nearby rooftop

Photography goes Public

1837

In 1837 Jacques Daguerre developed the process called Daguerreotyping. This was the first popular and common form of photography.

Daguerreotyping demonstration

1839

In 1839 Daguerre demonstrates his process to the public in Paris.
Images were exposed onto silver copper plates. It brought portraits to the masses and cost only 50 cents. Many portrait painters went out of business.

First Negative to Positive Process

1841

In 1841, Fox Talbot patents a process he calls 'CALOTYPE' which creates permanent (negative) images using paper soaked in silver chloride and fixed with a salt solution.
Talbot created positive images by contact printing onto another sheet of paper. (This is how we make prints without pinhole camera)

Making Photography Accessible

1888

In 1888 George Eastman Kodak develops FILM, allawing photographers to have something lighter and more portable than metal or glass plates

First Film Camera

1900

In 1900 the Kodak Brownie is introduced as the first film camera. This is also the first camera made for regular people.

First Digital Camera

1975

In 1975 Steven Sassone invented the first digital camera while working for Kodak. It weight 8 pounds and had 0.01 megapixels.
The process took 23 seconds, because the images were recorded in black and white unto cassette tape.

The fall of Film Cameras

2005

In 2005 Digital Cameras sales eclipse the film camera sales. This is seen as the end of an era

Phones with Camera

2010

In 2010 almost every phone has their own camera.

Today

2017

It is estimated that as of 2017 over 18 BILLION pictures are taken and uploaded unto the internet, as photography has become a common pass time with the rise of social media allowing people to upload and share their pictures and images