Photography is derived from the Greek words photos

"Photography" is derived from the Greek words photos ("light") and graphein ("to draw") The word was first used by the scientist Sir John F. W. Herschel in 1839. It is a method of recording images by the action of light, or related radiation, on a sensitive material.

Mo Ti China, th 5 Century BC Wrote that reflected rays of an illuminated object passing through a pinhole into a darkened enclosure resulted in an inverted but otherwise exact image of the object.

Aristotle, th 4 Century BC During an eclipse saw a crescent-shaped image of the sun on the ground beneath the tree that was projected by rays of light passing through the interstices of foliage onto a darkened surface.

Ibn Al-Haitham, th 10 Century Image formed was sharply defined when the aperture through which it was projected was small and became diffused as the hole was enlarged to admit more light.

Camera Obscura Aid to artists; inverted image which could be traced; an accurate rendition of the reflection of light. (dark light)

Camera Lucida Arrangement of prism and lens on a stand that enable draftsman to see a distant object superimposed on the drawing paper.

What is a photograph? A picture, likeness or facsimile obtained by photography.

Dependent on a series of historical, cultural, social and technical contexts which establish its meanings as image and an object.

Dependent on its context; the ”fixed” image is subject to continuous state of transformation and metamorphosis; each change of context changes it as an object and alters in terms of reference and value, influencing our understanding of its “meaning”and status.

Shifting distinction between its function as an image and its assumed value.

Placed in categories (or genres) which further codify their terms of reference or status.

Photographic practice was haunted by the “ghost of painting. ”

Institutionalized the artistic and professional aspect of its meaning in academic tradition.

Technology of sight.

Records of things seen. --John Berger

Infinite capacity to reproduce the world of its attention, for there is no end to its appetite.

Dictionary of nature. --Delacroix. . . not so much as a 'mirror' up to nature as a veritable catalogue of the world