History of Film Photo

Camera Obscura

A room or a small building with no windows. There is one small hole in one wall and it is fitted with a lens. This projected an image from outside onto the opposite wall inside the room! However the image was upside down.

WHY? Light travels in a straight line and when some of the rays reflected from a bright subject pass through a small hole in thin material they do not scatter but cross and reform as an upside down image on a flat surface held parallel to the hole.

(Is that a run-on sentence????)

The earliest mention of this type of device was by the Chinese philosopher Mo-Ti (5th century BC).

That’s 2,500 Years Ago!

Portable versions developed in the 1660”s

Johann Heinrich Schulze1725

In around the year 1725, this German anatomy professor discovered that by leaving a glass bottle filled with chalk, silver chloride, and nitric acid by a window, the sunlight would turn the chemicals on the sunlight exposed side darker (due to the silver chloride)

However, he could not figure out how to make the “images” (created by the silver chloride mixture and sunlight) remain permanent.

Carl Wilhelm Scheele1777

Carl Scheele repeated Johanne Schulze’s experiment in around 1777. He also noted the chemical reaction of light on silver compounds as well as other substances.

Unlike Johanne Schulze, Scheele discovered that ammonia would dissolve the silver chloride and leave an image intact.

First Printed Photographs 1816-1840

Worlds Oldest Photo Sold to the French National Library in 2002

The image of an engraving depicting a man leading a horse was made in 1825 by Joseph Nicephore Niepce, who invented a technique

known as heliography.

But It Doesn’t Look Like a Photo?!?!

Philippe Garner, who was in charge of the sale for the auctioneers Sotheby's, in Paris said: "If you look at this, it might not first be recognized as what we call today a photograph.

"And in fact, it is printed ink on paper.

"The crucial stage in creating this plate, however, is the etching by the action of light on light-sensitive chemicals of a metal plate which is then used as the printing plate."

1826 by Joseph Nicephore Niepce

A Heliograph (Sun Drawing) created with an 8 hour exposure.

"View from the Window at Le Gras"

Louis Jaques Mande Daguerre1835-1837

Louis Jacques-Mande Daguerre in 1837

"L’Atelier de l’artiste"

Louis Jacques-Mande Daguerre in 1838

This is one of the oldest known photograph of a human being in existence. It depends on how one defines photograph, but this was taken by Louis Jacques-Mande Daguerre in 1838. This is a photo of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris. This is a busy street and there was a lot of traffic, but since the exposure was so long, about 15-20 minutes, none of the moving figures can be seen. The only people visible are a guy getting his boots polished and the bootblack.

Louis Daguerre exposed silver coated copper plates to iodine, which obtained silver iodide. He then exposed the plates to light for several minutes. He then coated the plate with mercury vapor which was heated to 75°C to adhere the mercury with the silver. He then “fixed” the image in salt water.

These Daguerreotypes were the earliest type of photograph that was commercially available to the public.

Very popular during the late 1840’s to the early 1850’s. Rarely made after the 1860’s.

1840's Coldwater HotelColdwater, Michigan

Daguerreotype photo of a hotellocated near the Coldwater River and Sauk Trail.

1840

Robert Cornelius 1839

First Self Portrait

William Henry Fox Talbot1835-1841

William Talbot created a photographic process called a Calotype.

He first made an exposure on paper that was treated with silver compounds which produced a negative image. This paper with a negative image was than placed over another sheet of paper that was treated with silver compounds. This “paper sandwich” was then exposed to bright light which produced a positive image on that second sheet of paper.

Our first photo assignment in FILM PHOTOGRAPHY will be making Calotypes!

Flowers, Leaves, and Stem Oak Tree in Winter 1838 1842

Solar Photo-Micrograph, Transverse Section Stem

1839

Frederick Scott Archer1851

In around 1851 Frederick Archer introduced the Collodian wet-plate photographic process.

A clean glass plate had to be evenly coated with a substance called collodian. While still damp, the plate had to be dipped into a silver nitrate solution, then inserted into the camera, and then exposed. It was then developed immediately and then allowed to dry.

How to take and make photographs by the wet plate Collodian process | Video

Kenilworth: Caesar's Tower from the Inner Court Early 1850's

Rochester Cathedral, Castle, and Bridge1850-1859

Mathew Brady1861-1865

Civil War Photographer

He employed Alexander Gardner, James Gardner, Timothy H. O'Sullivan, William Pywell, George N. Barnard,

Thomas C. Roche, and seventeen other men, each of whom was given a traveling darkroom, to go out and

photograph the Civil War.

Lincoln and his Commanders1863

The Devil’s Den

Timothy O’Sullivan1861-1869

Civil War Photographer

1861-1865

Dead Boy at Fredericksburg December 1862

Harvest of Death 1863

Official Photographer on the U.S. Geological Exploration

1867-1869

He photographed the west to attract settlers.

Mojave Men Southwest Indian 1871

Black Canyon Colorado River 1871

Shoshone Falls Snake River, Idaho 1874

Will Soule1869-1874

Native American Photographer

at Fort Sill Oklahoma

Scalped Hunter Near Fort Dodge, Kansas December 7, 1868

Lone bear, Kiowa 1868

Native American silversmith from Navajo tribe sitting with his wares.

1870

Asa-to-yet, Native American Comanche chief, sitting with arms crossed & gun in hand.

1870

William Henry Jacksonmid 1800’s - early 1900’s

High Bridge in Loop, Colorado 1828

Photographer for the U.S. Geological Survey during

1871

He photographed the west to attract settlers.

Liberty Cap Mammoth Hot Springs YNP 1871

The Beehive Group of Geysers Yellowstone Park

Tower Falls Yellowstone National Park 1892

Late 1880’s……….

Flexible film was created to replace the heavy glass plates

The Kodak “Brownie” (1900, 1952-1967)

Jacob Riislate 1880’s-1890’s

Famous for recording the poverty in New York City Streets

Five Cents Lodging Bayard Street 1889

Children sleeping in Mulberry Street 1890

Minding Baby 1890

Young Boys Asleep In Street

Edward Curtis 1895-early 1900’s

Native American Photographer

Two Hopi girls sit on the ground eating melons

1900

Zuni Girl with Jar 1903

Chief Red Hawk – Sioux 1905

Qahatika Indian Girl1907

Crow’s Heart - Mandan1908

White Man Runs Him – Crow Scout for Custer1908

Plenty Coups1908

Clarence White

late 1890’s - early 1900’s

In 1914 he opened up his own School of Photography.

He photographed simple subjects and tried to focus on mood and romanticism. His main subjects were women and children.

The Orchard

1905

Morning1908

Frances Benjamin Johnston 1890’s-1920’s

One of the earliest female photographers. Around 1900, she spent time at Hampton Institute in

Hampton Virginia photographing African Americans while they were learning trades.

Cooking Class 1899

Stairway of the Treasurer's Residence, Students at Work,

The Hampton Institute, Hampton, Virginia. 1899-1900.

Tuskegee History Class1902

1900

Alfred Stieglitz late 1890’s- early 1930’s

The Founding Father of Photographic Art

GEORGIA O’KEEFFE

1918

1930

Icy Night 1893

A bit of Venice 1894

Edward Weston 1903-1948

Precise and Sharp presentation of Still Life's and Landscapes

Shell1927

Cypress Point Lobos 1929

Cabbage Leaf

1931

Edward Steichen 1905 – 1950’s

Director of Arial photography during WWI, Naval Photo Institute Director during WWII, and Fashion

Photographer

After Attack1918

Gloria Swanson1924

Kendall Lee1925

Greta Garbo 1928

Lewis Hine early 1904-1930’s

He photographed social issues and things that needed to be changed….such as The

Great Depression and Child Labor.

Cotton Mill spinner

1909

Power House Mechanic Working on Steam Pump

1920

Construction of the Empire State Building 1930 -1931

Charles Clyde Ebbets

• Construction of the Rockefeller Center or

Lunch Break Rockefeller Center Construction 1932

1913……

35mm Black and White film was created

Dorothea Langeearly 1920’s-1950’s

Famous for her photographs of the Great Depression

Migrant Mother1936

Migrant Mother"

Men walking towards Los Angeles 1937

Dust Bowl Farm

Woman of the High Plains Texas Panhandle 1938

Margaret Bourke-White 1920’s – 1950’s

Photojournalist and Activist on Humanitarian Issues throughout the world.

Technological Developments

1929-1933 Industrial Photographer for Fortune Magazine

1930’s Great Depression / Dust Bowl

1930’s Staff Photographer for Life Magazine

1940’s WWII and the liberation of Concentration Camps

1940’s Gandhi’s campaign of nonviolence in India

1950’s African mine workers and apartheid in South Africa

Fort Peck Dam Montana 1936

Cover of the First

Life Magazine

Buchenwald Concentration Camp Germany 1945

"Using a camera was almost a relief. It interposed a slight

barrier between myself and the horror in front of me."

Gandhi India 1946

South African Miners Johannesburg Gold Mine 1950

Paul Strand 1920’s-1970’s

His photographic work focused on composition, light, and shadows.

Wire Wheel 1917

Porch Shadows1916

His work also reflects using his camera as a tool for promoting social and political issues.

Blind Woman New York1916

Young Boy France 1951

Walker Evans 1928-1939

Most well known for his documentary photography during the Great Depression.

Brooklyn Bridge1929

Alabama Cotton Tenant Farmer Wife 1936

Ansel Adams late 1920’s-late 1970’s

He is a legendary black and white photographer of the American West.

Aaron Siskind 1930’s-1991

He was known as an abstract expressionist that also took close-up and detailed photos of nature

and architecture.

Henri Cartier-Bresson 1930’s – 1970’s

Known as the “Decisive Moment” Photographer

“the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of

an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that

event its proper expression."

Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare 1932

Hyeres 1932

Shanghai 1948

1935……

Kodachrome 35mm color film was created

Harry Callahan 1938-1977

Natural and built landscapes of the Midwest and his family.

Street Scenes

Photography Professor

Detroit 1943

Eleanor Chicago 1949

1965

Providence 1966

Providence 1968

Cairo 1973

Providence 1977