Photography Essay

1. Chapter 1
How landscape photography and it’s industry developed since Niépce’s “Urban
Landscape”
Introduction
To fully understand the development of landscape photography and its industry
we need to first look at when landscape photography first started and look at the
backlash that landscape photography had to face from the artistic community
when it first begun. Nicephore Niepce, a French inventor, took the very first
landscape photograph we know of during roughly around 1826 or 1827 however
nobody really knows which photograph is the first landscape photograph
because in the English scientist Henry Fox Talbot started testing various
photography inventions soon after. (Alegria, November 2nd 2018) Federico
references this saying “it is hard to trace the exact origin of landscape
photography” (Alegria, 2018) Before the 18th century the majority of painters
didn’t use landscapes as the subjects of their paintings and mostly used the
landscape for a background to their actual subject that they wanted the audience
to focus on whether this be a portrait of an important person or was a painting of
a particular event until the late 18th century when landscape photography
started. This however threatened painters and angered the painter community
because of how simple it was to take a photograph (Langford, 2013). Michael
references this stating “Photographers were seen as a threat by painters who
never failed to point out in public that these crass interlopers had no artistic
ability or knowledge” (Langford, 2013).
Focus Statement
I plan to discover how landscape photography has developed over the years. I
will do this by exploring the development of photography equipment, the
attitude towards landscape photography in the artistic community as well as
how it’s changed in the public’s eye throughout the years and finally how
landscape photography has affected the media industry/what industries have
been created by landscape photography. However, I will be mainly focusing on
comparing the artistic and public view on landscape photography in 1839-2019.
When exploring this topic, I will look at the backlash that photographers had to
face when trying to join the artistic community at a time where painters were the
dominant majority and didn’t see photography as what we perceive as art.
How Photography equipment has developed throughout the years
When photography was first invented around 1824 there was a very limited
amount of people who were actually able to use the equipment and get good final
outcome once they had actually taken the photo. This is because photography at
this point in time was more of a chemical experiment than anything else. For
example, Nicephore Niepce and Daguerre created the first photographic process
around 1824 where they used bitumen of Judea spread (a liquid or semi solid
light-sensitive material) on a silver plate after leaving it out in the open for
several days to create an extremely rough image on the plate. Then In 1839
Hippolyte Bayard discovered a way to make a positive image appear directly on
paper which also decreased the exposure time to 30 minutes to possibly 2 hours
instead of several days. Not long after William Henry Fox discovered how to

2. multiply the same image however the main advance in photographic technology
was when John Herschell discovered a way to fix images by dipping them in a
sodium hyposulfite bath which is still used to this day as the main component of
photographic fix baths. During this process the photo loses its original silver
halide overlaying the image, causing the image to become clearer. The next most
important discovery was when Hippolte Fizeau created the short focal lenses
letting more light into the camera, while still keeping the sharpness on the whole
image. In1947 on the 21st of February the “Land Camera”/ Polaroid was created
and was later introduced to the public in 1948. The Polaroid Land Camera Model
95 (the first Polaroid prototype) was sold in America in Boston for $89.75 and
made more than $5 million in sales in the first year alone which later increased
even more when in 1963 Polacolor film was introduced allowing the public to
take colour pictures wherever they want helping to make photography even
more popular then it already was. The main reason for such a great development
in photography during 1917-1945 was because companies such as Nikon and
Canon started to appear, two companies, which are now the two most popular
and successful camera companies in the world to this day, and was also because
of events such as World War 2. I know from research that the Imperial Japanese
Navy (IJN) put a large amount of investments in optical technology and
industries to produce optical military equipment for the IJN. This created
companies such as Nikon, Fuji, Canon and Minolta however these companies
were strictly used for military purpose only. As a result companies such as Nikon
and Canon were able to convert from strictly making military products to
manufacturing products for the civilian population after the end of the war.
However people argue that these investments in the IJN’s optical engineering
actually caused the success of many postwar Camera industries. (Alexander,
2002). Alexander references this stating “Japan’s pursuit of naval security in the
western Pacific through the 1920’s and 1930’s set the technological stage for the
success of many of its postwar manufacturing industries” (Alexander 2002).
How the photography industry has developed and what different types of
industries are there involved with photography?
The Photography industry mainly set off after the Second World War where a
large amount of photography industries was created and Improved because of
the number of funds that was put into them to help make military equipment
during world war 2. This meant that companies after the war that were mainly
supplied by the war support and the military either slowly started to fail or
became very successful because of the kick-start the funding gave. This allowed
businesses such as Nikon and Conon to get a foothold in the industry and meant
that they had the money to convert their business from a strictly military one to
a civilian company, focusing on producing products for the public and creating
teams to help them improve their cameras to compete with the incredibly large
industry that had been left after the war creating an extremely competitive
market. However, from studies I can see that the photography industry (PI) in
the UK and the US Is now worth billions. It is proven that the Revenue of the UK
PI makes £1.7bn while the US PI makes $6.5bn. There are approximately 8,119
businesses in the UK involving the Photography industry with an annual growth
of 2.2% whereas in the US there is approximately 12,458 businesses with an
annual growth of 2.5%. The majority of photography industries are now private

3. businesses that consists of just one person who is a famous photographer. For
example, the famous landscape photographer Thomas Heaton has a YouTube
channel where he makes videos that are sponsored by companies to advertise
their product or he just gets the regular ad review from any of his video’s that
are more then 10minutes long. He also sells the photos he gets to anyone that is
willing to buy them, this includes selling to the public and selling his images to
clients such as the National Trust and other companies to use for advertisement.
Some other famous photographers such as Justin Minns makes calendars with
his photos and holds a range of different masterclasses that members of the
public can come to, to learn about certain techniques of taking photos. Because of
the development of the internet and the rise of companies such as YouTube,
Facebook and Instagram. Business and companies alike now have much easier
access to their target audience however most people don’t realise how effective
and useful it is until they have actually used it. (Heaton 2017). Heaton
references this stating “It took me several videos before I realised the power of
YouTube” (Heaton 2017) this allows the person/business to have a better
connection with their audience allowing them to find out easier what their target
audience wants to see from them. This can also make the audience more likely to
buy the product because of the connection they have with the person that made
it, this personal connection that is created by this method has helped the
photography industry to turn into one of the most successful industries in the
world because of how easy it is for people to talk to professional photographers.
Conclusion
In conclusion the photography industry and photography itself has developed
massively. Starting off as a chemical experiment that only the rich could afford
and only a few people knew how to do the experiment right and is now
something that can be easily done by everyone who has a phone. Since
photography was first developed only recently have we discovered how to edit
photos in any way that we want allowing people to be more creative with their
photos and meaning that the interest in photography will have greatly increased
because more freedom is given to the maker to do what they want and to create
ideas that haven’t been done before.
Bibliography
1. Alegria, F. (November 2nd 2018). A Brief History of Landscape
Photography. Available: https://www.lightstalking.com/history-landscape-
photography/. Last accessed 5th November 2019.
2. Anon. (anon). The History of Photography. Available: http://www.photo-
museum.org/photography-history/. Last accessed November 12th 2019.
3. Alexander, J. (2002). Nikon and the Sponsorship of Japan's Optical
Industry by the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1917-1945. Japanese Studies. 22
(Issue 1)
4. Langford, M. (2013). Basic Photography. 7th ed. Anon: Anon. p12
5. Thomas Heaton. (2014). Youtube. Available:
https://thomasheaton.co.uk/about/. Last accessed 10th December 2019.