Photography began in the 18th century with the camera obscura, which projected images but could not capture them permanently. In the early 19th century, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce and Louis Daguerre developed early photographic processes to capture permanent images, with exposure times of hours or minutes. Throughout the 19th century, various photographic processes were invented, including the collodion process and gelatin dry plates, reducing exposure times to seconds. In the late 19th century, George Eastman developed roll film and the Kodak camera, making photography widely accessible. The 20th century saw many innovations including 35mm film, SLR cameras, color film, digital cameras and camera phones, transforming photography into a

1. History of
Photography
Marisa Haitsma

2. Photos (light)
+
Graphein (to draw)
=
“Photography”

3. First cameras: “Camera obscuras”
Originally used for drawing and entertaining.
Projects an image of its surroundings on a screen.

5. 1727: Johann Heinrich
Schulze discovered that
silver nitrate darkened
when exposed to light by
mixing chalk, nitric acid,
and silver in a flask.

6. 1814: Joseph Nicéphore
Niépce combines the camera
obscura with photosensitive
paper to create the first
picture ever. Eight hour
exposure and eventually,
faded.

7. 1826: Joseph Nicéphore Niépce combines
the camera obscura with photosensitive
paper to create the first permanent picture.

8. 1834: Henry Fox Talbot
invented the first negative
from which multiple
positive prints could be
made.

9. 1837: Louis Daguerre’s first “daguerreotype”.
Did not fade and needed less than 30 minutes
for light exposure.

10. 1841: Talbot invented the
“calotype” process,
which means “beautiful
picture” in Greek, by
using a silver salt
solution.

11. 1851: Frederick Scott
Archer invented the
“Collodion” process
which only requires two
to three seconds of light
exposure.

12. 1856: Hamilton Smith patented “tintypes”,
which used a thin sheet of iron as a base for the
light sensitive material. Three million made by
mid 1800’s.

13. 1871: Richard Leach
Maddox, an English
doctor, invented the
gelatin dry plate silver
bromide process. No
longer did negatives have
to be developed right
away.

14. 1880: George Eastman
founded Eastman Dry
Plate Company in
Rochester, New York. First
half-tone photograph
appears in a daily
newspaper, the New York
Graphic.

15. 1888: Eastman
patents first
Kodak roll-film
camera.

16. 1889: Eastman invented film with a flexible base
that could be rolled.

17. 1900: First mass-marketed camera – the Brownie.

18. 1914: Oskar Barnack
developed the first 35mm
(“candid”) film camera.

19. 1917: Nippon Kōgaku Kōgyō Kabushikigaisha,
which will eventually become “Nikon
Corporation”, is established in Tokyo.

20. 1932: First light meter with photoelectric
cell introduced.

21. 1948: Edwin Land invented the Polaroid camera.

22. 1960: EG&G comes up with an extreme depth
underwater camera for U.S. Navy.

23. 1963: First color
instant film
developed by
Polaroid.

24. 1968: Photo of
the year: the
Earth.

25. 1978: Konica introduces first point-and-shoot,
autofocus camera.

26. 1978: Sony
introduces the first
consumer
camcorder. Before,
it was used only
commercially.

27. 1985: Minolta markets the world's first autofocus
SLR system (called "Maxxum" in the US)

28. 1990: A favorite! Adobe Photoshop is released.

29. 1999: Nikon D1
SLR, 2.74
megapixels for sale
for $6000, first
DSLR designed by a
leading
manufacturer.

30. 2000: Camera phone
introduced in Japan by
Sharp/J-phone.

31. 2004: Kodak ceases
production of film
cameras. The film
era decreases
rapidly.

32. Today: Open access
and no constraints!
Look how far we’ve
come and who
knows what the
future will hold!