2. • Photojournalism is the art of expressing photographs to communicate
events with the world. Technology overtime has impacted photojournalism
tremendously. But where did it begin? This timeline will display multiple
technological advances that have affected photojournalism.
3. 1839:
DAGUERREOTYP
E
• The daguerreotype was the first photographic
process invented by Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre
and were primarily used for portraits. Images were
printed on silver coated copper plate that resembled a
mirror. The plate is then exposed to light with iodine
and bromine in a box camera. Once it was exposed in
the camera it was developed with mercury fumes.
These images were easily damageable, therefore; they
were typically held in hand held cases made with
velvet and leather. Mathew Brady a photojournalist
utilized daguerreotype photography capturing
portraits including President Abraham Lincoln. In
addition, daguerreotype photographs were engraved
into newspapers.
6. 1851:
WET
COLLODION
PROCESS
• The collodion process was invented by Fredrick Scott
Archer. This photographic process created a negative
image involving many complicated steps with glass,
chemical solutions and a dark room. Although, the
exposure time was much shorter than the daguerreotype
process it created highlights in detail within a
photograph. It was the prime method for
photojournalist such as Mathew Brady, Timothy
O’Sullivan and Alexander Gardner during the Civil war.
Not only was it a time-consuming process it involved
photojournalist to travel with a lot of equipment. Due to
the exposure time taking so long, it was impossible to
capture action scenes during there war. As a result,
there are many after war images showing dead soldiers.
9. 1912:
GRAFLEX SPEED
GRAPHIC
CAMERA
o The Graflex Speed Graphic Camera was created
by Folmer & Schwing Manufacturing Company in
New York. This camera was known to be used by
the famous photojournalist WeeGee. These
cameras were popular among photojournalist due
to their high shutter speeds, interchangeable
lenses and the cameras light weight portable
features. The high shutter speed allows the
photojournalist to freeze quick motion. In
addition, the camera allows the main subject to
appear sharp in detail while blurring out the
background, creating the main subject to appear
more dramatic.
Photograph by: Margaret Bourke-White
10. 1912:
GRAFLEX SPEED
GRAPHIC CAMERA
o On right: Photograph by:
Wee Gee
o On left: Photograph by:
Unknown Photograph of
Margaret Bourke-White
with her Speed Graphic
Camera
11. 1914:
35MM LEICA
o This camera was created by Oskar Burnack.
However, it wasn’t until 1924 the camera was sold
to the public. The portability of the 35mm Leica
has grabbed many photojournalists attention
overtime. The small handheld Leica allows a
photojournalist to be discrete while taking images.
In addition, the Leica features a silent shutter
speed of 1/25 to 1/500. Whereas, previous cameras
were bulky, loud, had long exposure time nor were
easy to travel with. This camera was extremely
popular during World War II.
o Top photograph taken by: Margaret Bourke-White
o Bottom photograph by: Robert Capa
12. 1935:
WIRE TRANSMITTERS
• On December 31st 1934 the first photo was sent
through Associated Press Wirephoto service,
According to TIME Magazine, “Once the print
was made and ready to be sent, it would be
wrapped around a cylinder on the transmitter. At
the push of a button, the cylinder, which could
hold up to 11 x 17-inch prints, would spin at one
hundred revolutions per minute underneath an
optical scanner. The optical scanner would shine
a very thin beam of light onto the spinning print,
which would then reflect light back into a
photoelectric cell, which, in turn, would translate
the reflections of light and dark tones into
signals that would be carried across the wires.”
• The photograph was delivered to 47 different
newspaper companies in 25 different states in
minutes. This is the beginning of the biggest
impact on photojournalism. Typically,
photojournalist rely on mail, trains, planes,
runners which can take a very long time to send
images to a source. By 1951, over 200,000 images
were sent via Associated Press Wire photo
service.
14. 1935:
KODACHROME
• Kodak introduced color to
photography, developed by
Leopold Mannes and Leopold
Godowsky Jr who were
experimenting with color. The
coloring process consist of three
layers of emulsion that captures
blue, green and red wavelength.
However, this isn’t the first-time
color has been introduced to
photographic images.
Left to right: Photograph by: Nickolas Muray & Photograph taken by: Charmers Butterfield
15. 1980:
ONLINE
NEWSPAPER
S
(MULTIMEDI
A)
• Multimedia also as online newspapers began
around 1980s when the dial up internet
began. It’s a form of photojournalism where
photojournalist share their image and stories
instead of having them printed in
newspapers. This is a convenient way for
photojournalist to upload their images to
their computers to share online for their
viewers to see. CompuServe dial up service
impacted the first online newspaper to be
published
17. 1975:
1ST DIGITAL CAMERA PROTYPE
• the first prototype for a
digital camera was created
in 1975 by Steve Sasson
from Eastman Kodak .
However, Kodak never saw
the potential and didn’t
developed the technology. It
weighed about 8lbs and
saved images on a cassette
tape.
Photograph by: unknown
18. 1988:
FUJI DS-1P
• Fujifilm in Tokyo released the first digital
camera in 1988 that saves images to a memory
card. The semiconductor memory card at the
time contained 2 megabytes of SRAM and held
5- 10 photographs. This was a huge convenience
for photojournalist to change memory cards
rather than film. Once film is used and
developed, it was thrown away. Whereas, a
memory card is reusable. The lightweight
features of the Fuji DS-1P features 3x zoom,
rechargeable batteries and an image play back
function to view photographs taken.
19. 1994:
BLOGS
o Blogs are an online journal that was created in 1994 by a college
student named Justin Hall from Links.net. However, at the time
they were known as personal homepages. It wasn’t until 1997
they were referred to blogs thanks to Jorn Barger. Over the
years, blogs have been becoming extremely popular. Therefore,
photojournalist have been blogging to images and stories. They
can also receive feedback from viewers. Whereas, at one point
that wasn’t possible with newspapers. Photojournalist can
continue to add content to their blogs creating a website with all
their reported events or images for viewers to see. This is very
convenient for photojournalist because it saves time from
printing images depending on their camera they are using. They
can send images to their email/editor and upload it to their blog.
Today, they could even capture an image with their cellphone and
upload it as well.
