Shadows To Snapshot: The Long Journey Of Photography
- Sunanda S
- Dec 22, 2024
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 22
A single picture is so powerful that it can define an era. Just like the photo of a migrant mother, whose weary eyes, and her children clinging onto her, replicated the Great Depression. This iconic image froze time with just one click. If such a masterpiece emerged at the dawn of photography, imagine the limitless possibilities now!
How did we journey from this to the era of mobile photography, where every moment is at our fingertips? How has photography shaped the narration of the world?
To learn more, let's begin our journey to understand the evolution of photography.
In the past, the camera was not as technologically advanced as it is today. The concept of a modern camera can be traced back to 400 BC when a simple shadow-capturing device called 'camera obscura' was used to project an image.
The camera obscura, which means "dark chamber" in Latin, is a device made up of a dark room or box with a small hole in one of its walls or the ceiling. The camera obscura or a pinhole camera creates an image by focusing rays of light onto a screen or sheet of paper through the hole, according to a report by Science World. As light travels in straight lines, the image appears inverted and upside-down through a pinhole camera.
Role of Light
Light has always been the heart of photography, a fact scientifically proven by German professor and polymath Johann Heinrich Schulze. He found that silver nitrate salt is sensitive to light as the salt's color changes to black when exposed to the sun. People who were unfamiliar with chemistry considered it as magic.
Experimental Stage
One of the earliest attempts at photography was Joseph Nicéphore Niépce's heliograph in 1827. The heliograph was created by exposing asphalt to light, resulting in a faint and ghostly image that took days to form. His masterpiece, "View From the Window at Le Gras," is the first known photograph or sun drawing as it was called during that time. It took several days to form a picture after being exposed to sunlight.
The revolution came in 1833, when Louis Daguerre refined Niépce's process, slashing the exposure time from days to just seven minutes. Over the next two decades, this innovation made photography much more practical, setting the stage for its widespread use. After Niépce's death that same year, Daguerre experimented with copper plates coated in iodized silver to create sharper and durable images.
However, Daguerre wasn't the only pioneer in this field. Around the same time, Hippolyte Bayard and Hércules Florence were also capturing images, with Florence even coining the term "photographic" long before it became the standard word for the medium. In those early days, the images were often called "daguerreotypes," and the word "photography" itself hadn't yet made its way into everyday language.
The first Selfie
In 1839, Robert Cornelius was the first guy to take a selfie. We think we are advanced, but Robert was the cool guy of 1839.
Have you ever thought that you would be drugged for a photo while your parents took you for a stamp-size photo? No, right?
From 8 days to 7 minutes, the exposure time was reduced to 3 minutes. Yet, people found it difficult to stay still and that's why all were drugged to stay still. As people were drugged, people's faces were stern and stiff in the photos.
Sheets to Films
There was a time when capturing images meant exposing them to sunlight, creating pictures with a soft, subtle look. After this William Henry Fox Talbot invented the "Invisible to Visible" transition in photography.
Talbot's work also led to the creation of a chemical solution known as "Hypo" (sodium thiosulfate), which served as a fixer in photographs.
This sparked a rivalry between Talbot's Calotype (or KALA) and Daguerre's model of photography. While the Calotype offered a significant advantage by allowing multiple negative-to-positive prints, it was the Daguerreotype that captured the public's favor due to its higher quality and broader commercial appeal. Ultimately, the Daguerreotype triumphed, becoming more widely adopted and fueling further developments in photography.
This shift represented a massive cultural transformation. Where once people relied on poetry, letters, and conversations to remember loved ones, visual representation took its place. Fast forward to today, snapping a photo is as easy as a click, but in the past, processes like the Woodbury (a photochemical process) and platinum prints (Platinotype) were used. These methods, while beautifully detailed, were incredibly expensive—an extravagance that made photography a luxury reserved for the wealthy.
Kodak Era
This extravagance came to an end when Kodak came to play in 1888. They allowed everyone to click and capture as it was affordable and easily accessible. Everyone was the subject and the photographer.
Digital Era
Slowly photography began to evolve into a more permanent form of capturing life. From the late 19th to the early 20th century, the foundations of digital photography were laid, gaining significant momentum by 2004. The advent of digital technology didn't just transform the process but also introduced color into photography. Imagine the magic of seeing black-and-white images transform into vibrant color photos.
Cool Fact: When color photography was introduced, it was blue-sensitive. This is why we find old photographs have whitewashed backgrounds in place of the sky as blue and white had the same photographic value.
Modern Photography
As technology advanced photography evolved from shadows, sepia tones, and monochrome to chromogenic colors. Now we carry pocket mobile phones that can capture any moment in an instant and everyone is a photographer.
There are many types of photography, like abstract, surreal, fashion, modern, street, and documentary. Along with this, modern photography bloomed. Modern photographers eventually disrupted the wider conventions of the art world by expanding both art and subject.
Impact of photography
Over time, the role of photography has evolved significantly. What began as a means of preserving memories, expressing art, and advancing scientific research gradually shifted toward social sharing, advertising, and marketing. This transformation sparked a change in perspective, fueling creativity and fostering a deeper sense of realism and authenticity in visual culture. Photography not only influenced the way people saw the world but also reshaped the world of art itself, offering new techniques and tools for sculpting and painting. At the same time, modernist painters introduced movements like cubism and surrealism, which profoundly impacted how photographers approached their subjects, pushing them to explore new angles and unconventional perspectives.
Wrapping It Up
The journey of photography, which began around 400 BC, continues to progress even in 2024. What started as a way to capture fleeting moments has transformed into a powerful form of self-expression. Today, it’s incredible to think that we all carry pocket-sized cameras, and snapping a photo feels effortless, and accessible anytime and anywhere. But the process that brought us here is so much more than just technology. It’s a rich history of creativity, innovation, and the constant drive to capture and share our world.
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Edited by Shreya Biswas
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