Photography has been around for 170-180 years. First thought about in 1839, it was discovered that some chemicals respond to light, meaning when these chemicals were spread on a piece of paper and exposed to light, they would react and leave an image/outline behind on the paper. Silver salt was detected in 1802, as was the fact that it would create an image however it was not permanent and would fade and disappear over time.
At the start of the documentary you are shown a picture by the photographer Andre Kertesz,which is a image taken in Meudon which shows a narrow road with buildings on either side and a bridge with a railway in the background and a man carrying a package in the foreground. this brings up many questions such as: who is the man? where is he going? and what is he carrying? to name a few. this reminds a mystery as this is what photography is about capturing the moment that you think are interesting and thought about.
The first model of a camera was the camera obscura, as explained in my post entitled “camera obscura,” is made from a blacked out room with a small hole made around the centre which allows light to flood in and create the image from outside the room inside but backwards and upside down.
Henry Fox-Tolbert was an English man who had the money to be able to look more into discovering photography which at the time you had to spend hours drawing an painting the image you wanted.
Louie Daguerre was a Frenchman also working on keeping images viable when Fox-Tolbert was working on the same thing in England. Daguerre was the inventor of the self named ‘Daguerreotypes’. The daguerreotype is an image on silvered copper plate and is fragile and heavy. Nicknamed a mirror with memory it is only there in the right light.
Nadar was also a frenchman, born in the early 1800s he is known for photographing famous people and making them look normal, for example with the women actress’ he dressed one lady in a cloth, making people focus on her face rather than her expensive clothes with showed how rich she was.
George Eastman was an American who help photography become well know, he invented his own company ‘Kodak’ which is still well known and used today. he made photography well known with the realise of the ‘brownie camera’ which was only a dollar in the US and made photography accessible to everyone.
Is photography art? This question is asked a lot, ‘it it art?’ i would say yes it is art because you are taking a photograph (now), which takes seconds, whereas our ancestors would of had to spend hours painting that image and wouldn’t be as accurate is a photograph is.
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