The History of Photography Part I Camera Obscura

The History of Photography Part I

Camera Obscura • The first “camera” didn’t capture permanent images, it was used as a tool to trace. • The camera obscura (Latin for dark room) is a natural optical phenomenon that happens when the scene on the other side of a screen is projected through a small hole in the screen and forms a mirror image on the surface opposite the opening. • The camera obscura can be dated back to 470 -391 BC. https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/History_of_the_camera#/media/Fil e: Camera_Obscura_box 18 th. Century. jpg

A little bit of history… • Forms of camera obscuras were developed and used for years. • Lenses, shutters, and portable versions were developed to help assist artists in capturing images through projection and tracing. https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Camera_obscura#/media/File: 1642_Mario_Bettini__Apiaria_universae_philosophiae_mathematica. jpg

Nicephore Niepce • The first partially captured photographic image was made around 1816 by Nicephore Niepce, using a camera he constructed and paper coated with silver chloride, a forerunner to film and photo paper. • Because Niepce didn’t know how to remove the unused silver chloride, the image eventually turned completely black. https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Nic%C 3%A 9 phore_Ni%C 3%A 9 pce# /media/File: Joseph_Nic%C 3%A 9 phore_Ni%C 3%A 9 pce. jpg

The first photograph… • Niepce continued to experiment with creating photographs and eventually was successful in capturing a permanent image, which is still around today. https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Nic%C 3%A 9 phore_Ni%C 3%A 9 pce#/media/File: Nic%C 3%A 9 p hore_Ni%C 3%A 9 pce_Oldest_Photograph_1825. jpg

A little bit of history… • This is the oldest surviving photograph of nature. • Niepce capture this using a camera obscura. • Bitumen of Judea, a naturally occurring asphalt, was coated onto a metal plate. The bitumen hardened in the brightly lit areas, but in the dimly lit areas it remained soluble and could be washed away with a mixture of oil of lavender and white petroleum. • It is estimated that this was exposed for 8 hours. ”View from the Window at Le Gras, ” 1826 https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/View_from_the_Window_at_Le_Gras

https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Daguerreotype#/media/File: Louis_Daguerre_2. jpg • The first publicly available photo process. • Was the most popular for twenty years. • Invented by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre and became available world wide by 1839. • A copper sheet was plated with silver. • Polished and fumed with iodine vapor. • Light-sensitive silver iodide was added to the surface of plate • The sheet was then Inserted in the camera. and exposed. • Treated with heated mercury to expose the image. • Fixed with salt water. Daguerreotype of Louid Daguerre in 1844 by Jean-Baptiste Sabatier-Blot The Daguerreotype…

• A daguerreotype is on a mirror like surface. • It can appear as a positive or negative image depending on the angle of the photograph and light reflecting off of the photograph. The first authenticated image of Abraham Lincoln was this daguerreotype of him as U. S. in 1846, attributed to Nicholas H. Shepard of Springfield, Illinos https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Daguerreotype#/media/File: Abraham_Lincoln_by_Nicholas_Shepherd, _1846 -crop. jpg The Daguerreotype…

https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Daguerreotype#/media/File: 1851_07_28_Berkowski. jpg The solar eclipse of July 28, 1851 is the first correctly exposed photograph of a solar eclipse, using the daguerreotype process.

The Calotype… • Invented by William Henry Fox Talbot • The process was introduced to the public in 1841. • Paper was sensitized with silver chloride. • A photogram could be created by laying an object on sensitized paper and exposing it to light. • Negative image could be converted to a positive through contact printing. • Talbot invented the negative-positive process we know today. • This opened the door for reproducibility. William Henry Fox Talbot, by John Moffat, 1864 https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Calotype#/media/File: William_Henry_Fox_Talbot, _by_John_Moffat, _1864. jpg

Photogram • Created by placing objects on light sensitive paper and exposing it to light.

Hypo Fixer • Sir John Herschel was an Englishman who discovered the “true” fixative for images, sodium thiosulfate. • Originally it was Incorrectly identified as sodium HYPOsulfite, shortened to “HYPO. ” • This is the same fixer used today, still called “HYPO” in spite of incorrect identification. • In film photography fixer is what sets the final image on the photo paper.

Collodion Wet-Plate Process • The collodion process was invented 1851, almost simultaneously by Frederick Scott Archer and Gustave Le Gray. • The process was refined over the years by other photographers, and by the late 1860’s had almost entirely replaced the Daguerreotype process. • In this process the photographic material has to be coated, sensitized, exposed and developed within the span of about fifteen minutes. • In order to do the collodion process the plate still had to be wet during exposure. • The quick process required a portable darkroom to be used in the field. A portable photography studio in 19 th century Ireland. The wet collodion process sometimes gave rise to portable darkrooms, as photographic images needed to be developed while the plate was still wet. https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Collodion_process#/media/File: Micklethwaite_Portable_studio. jpg

North Sydney and Sydney Harbour, by C Bayliss B Holtermann, 1875, colossal collodion glass-plate https: //en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/Collodion_process#/ media/File: North_Sydney _and_Sydney_Harbour, _b y_C_Bayliss_B_Holterma nn, _1875, _XR_45 a. jpg

British veteran of the Napoleonic era Peninsular War with his wife, c. 1860, handtinted ambrotype using the bleached collodion positive process. https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/ Collodion_process#/media/File: 1860_Anonyme_Un_v%C 3%A 9 t %C 3%A 9 ran_et_sa_femme_Am brotype. jpg

Timothy O’Sullivan, “Wagon Mules in California Desert, ” 1867 (Wet-Plate)

Timothy O’Sullivan, “Canyon de Chelly” (White House Ruins), 1873 Shot on many geologic survey expeditions

Carleton Watkins, “Canyon de Chelly” “Yosemite Valley” (Best General View) c. 1865

Carleton Watkins, “Yosemite Falls” (From Bottom) 1878 -81

Fig. 411. Eadweard Muybridge, 1830 -1904. (From Animals in Motion, 1899 • An English photographer who lived between England the US. • Learned the wet-plate process and became known world wide for his photographs of Yosemite. • In the late 1870’s he began working on developing animal locomotion, which used multiple cameras to capture stop motion in animal movement. https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Eadweard_Muybridge#/media/File: Optic_Projection_fig_411. jpg Eadweard Muybridge

• A device invented by Muybridge that projected stop motion images to create a sense of movement. • This invention predates film used in cinematography. • He ended up producing over 100, 000 images of animals and humans in motion. • He had a huge influence on visual artists and photographers during this era. https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Zoopraxiscope The Zoopraxiscope

“Movement of Hand In a Circle, ” 1887

“GALLOPING HORSE, ” 1878